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Webcams to Enforce Singapore Quarantine

magarity writes "Singapore has hired a private security firm to install internet connected webcams in homes of persons quarantined for SARS in order to watch them to see if they go out. They are considering adding electronic wristbands as well. 9 of the 490 persons have broken the quarantine despite a fine of 10,000 singapore dollars ($5,621US). Just over 100 people worldwide have died from SARS so far."

21 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. The wrist band has an 8' extension cord... by purduephotog · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... and in reality is worn about the neck. It comes with a detonatable charge to sever the individual's neck should they attempt to go further than the 8' extension cord allows. Please hope they find an outlet in the bathroom

    Now, all dilbert joking aside, this is one disease that scares me... without a common vector identified.... we might all be in for it.

    1. Re:The wrist band has an 8' extension cord... by the+Atomic+Rabbit · · Score: 4, Informative
      And the 4% mortality rate is probably inflated from the true mortality rate given modern medicine: the majority of the deaths occurred in the rural Chinese province from which the bug first emerged.

      Nope. Figures for infection (death) from the latest BBC story on SARS:

      Hong Kong 970 (27) 2.8%
      Singapore 118 (9) 7.6%
      Canada 91 (10) 11.0%

      These three countries have medical facilities on par with those in the United States. The numbers are too small to arrive at a precise mortality rate, but your hypothesis is clearly wrong.

  2. x10 camera! by Limburgher · · Score: 4, Funny
    Mount inside doctors office! Spy on babysitter, kids, neighbors! Stops SARS!

    Failing that, meet in in Boulder. Mother Abigail said that The Dark Man is gathering his own on the other side of the mountains. . .

    --

    You are not the customer.

  3. Click here! by dr_dank · · Score: 4, Funny

    The hottest sluts with mysterious respiratory diseases are waiting to chat with YOU!

    --
    Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
  4. This is Singapore... by sco08y · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Before you start on about 1984, this is happening in Singapore, not the US.

    And to head off the inevitable Ashcroft / Patriot Act recriminations, please offer actual *proof* of claims that our civil liberties are being eroded.

    1. Re:This is Singapore... by thelexx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since you brought it up and apparently missed yesterday's thread with FIFTEEN HUNDRED FSCKING MESSAGES on why Ashcroft/Patriot are bad, here's my favorite:

      Re:Not A Joke (Score:5, Informative)
      by bricriu (184334) on Wednesday April 09, @03:39PM (#5695030)
      (http://slashdot.org/)
      You can be detained, without being charged, indefinitely, having been investigated under a sealed warrant, an unsigned warrant, or no warrant at all, and then be denied access to a lawyer.

      And that is un-American. Period.

      --
      "Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
  5. Re:What's the big deal? by EnderWiggnz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    hey dickhead - if it truly has a 4% mortality rate, that will kill 1/25 people.

    thats at least one student in a highschool class.

    at least one person in your extended family.

    it does need to be quarantined, or we are all fscked.

    --
    ... hi bingo ...
  6. One day a killer one will come along... by weave · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Humans can be so stupid. Sometimes I think maybe evolution shouldn't just wipe us all out and start over again. In a few million years, who'll care that the human race had a forced reboot in the 21st Century?

    Looks like we may get lucky this time -- hopefully. If a real killer virus hits, we're all doomed. :(

  7. Not quite as bad as summary makes it sound.... by ERJ · · Score: 5, Informative

    The people will be called randomly during the day and asked to turn on the camera to confirm that they are really there. The camera will not always be on. Just an extra precaution to make sure people don't just have someone else answer their phone.

  8. Next big reality series is on it's way.... by ChaseTec · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the story of 490 strangers forced to live in a quarantine block together and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting SARS...

    --
    My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
  9. If they're using Microsoft Webcams... by GeneralEmergency · · Score: 4, Funny


    ...then MS's ad campain slogan of "Where Do you Want to Go Today?" must really be stinging right about now.

    --
    "A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
    GeneralEmergency
  10. SARS by philovivero · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those, like me, who didn't know a whole lot about SARS, someone typed up a real nice Wikipedia entry on SARS, including a nice table of diagnosed cases per country.

  11. It's not that BAD by jeeryg_flashaccess · · Score: 4, Informative

    A 60 minutes segment yesterday reminded views that SARS is far less dangerous than Malaria.

    Malaria kills almost 1 million world wide per year.

    It is also important to mention that SARS could just be a wake up call, one which prods the public to pursue these deadly diseases. If anything, SARS will establish guidelines to prevent future disease outbreaks.

    http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/1998/08/01/48hours/main22761.shtml

    --
    Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
    1. Re:It's not that BAD by robbo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it is that bad. Malaria isn't contagious. If SARS isn't contained, then a lot more than a million people could die. Consider what could happen if SARS spread to Africa, where a significant percentage of the population is infected with an immune-suppressing virus (HIV).

      --
      So long, and thanks for all the Phish
  12. Re:What's the big deal? by Bloodshot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's only 4% because people are acting quickly to try and stop it from spreading. I live and work around Toronto (which is one of the places where SARS has shown up with a vengence in Canada), and believe me, it's a big freakin' deal. I had to go the doctor for treatment of strep throat and there was a form I had to fill out about SARS and every medical person there had a filter mask on and wouldn't go NEAR you until they determined you weren't a SARS risk.

    Like some others have said, how would YOU feel if someone you knew was one of those 4%. I think your knee would jerk pretty high.

  13. Re:What's the big deal? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Why are we quarantining people over something with a 4% mortality rate?

    The 4% mortality rate is before all of the hospitals are full and before the world's supply of available respirators is exhausted. If 1,000,000 people in one country catch this, things could be different.

    I'm just hoping that this virus mellows out a little bit as it goes through multiple generations in humans, as some viruses have been known to do. That might be the only way it will slow down.

  14. In Other News by jetkust · · Score: 4, Funny

    Law enforcement agencies all over America are in the process of laying off 85% of their police force in favor of 100 strategically placed web cams across the United States.

  15. Doesn't matter, they're ignoring the quarantine... by kiwimate · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...in Toronto, causing Ontario public health officials to order 197 people into isolation.

    And, by the way, it's now been discovered to be a relative of one of the many viruses that cause the common cold. But that kind of got overshadowed by all the war news.

    As did the anti-war protest database being kept by the NYPD. But ignore this, it's off topic.

  16. Re:What's the big deal? by whm · · Score: 4, Informative

    Perhaps because Measles has a mortality rate of only about 0.2%? CDC Reference. There is also a vaccine for measles (which I'm sure contributes to the mortality rate listed on that page)

    With SARS we're also dealing with something we don't entirely understand yet. I'm personally impressed with how serious it's being treated. If anything, it helps us practice in case of a more significant situation.

    Better safe than sorry, you know?

  17. Flu Pandemic of 1918 - 3 % mortality. by MightyTribble · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...which killed upwards of 20 MILLION people, had a mortality rate of 3%.

    SARS seems to be *at least* as transmissible as the 1918 flu was.

    That's why.

  18. FYI by Uber+Banker · · Score: 5, Informative

    Singapore does not have a Chinese government. SIngapore is a seperate country.

    Your opinions are severly prejudice.

    Singapore is a western country, with a high GDP, a less corrupt government than the US (read corporate influence). The racial mix of SG is Malay, Chinese and others, christian, muslim and buddhist in strong numbers. There is no clear majority [do all people with 'slitty eyes' look the same to you?].

    Take Hawaii for example, a mix of Pacific Islanders, Japanese, Chinese White and African Americans - would you like to call that an East Asian country full of people "_NOT_ like us"???

    Your numbered points are laughable - take point 2 for some crass idiocy "most Taiwanese want Tibet to be in one China" - Taiwanese believe China is an occupied country and Taiwan should take control of it!!! Totally opposite!

    I hope you are as unsuccessful as you are stupid, you surely deserve it.