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SARS and the Internet
AndroidCat writes "In this story scientists who cracked SARS' genetic code credit the Internet as a key: 'The Internet has had a profound impact on how this data has been shared and how scientists have collaborated.' The Internet has also been useful in containing the outbreak by facilitating online discussion by ER doctors. Not mentioned in the stories is that Toronto researchers who were in quarantine were able to stay in touch. Slashdot has also covered Distributed Computing Attacking SARS. Go Internet!"
Speaking of SARS, check this out.
I often here friends and collegues disgusted by the Internet, or simply bored by it. There's nothing to do on it they claim except play some games, check a few popular web sites, instant message, etc. I always claim to them that the Internet still finds a tremendous use in the research community, stories like this confirm my findings. The Internet is only as limited as your imagination I guess. If you have an interest in anything academic, the Internet can certainly help you stray abreast of the major topics and discussions in a timely matter.
What is this internet thing I keep hearing so much about, and how can I get on board? I've been thinking it could really help my colleagues and I share our IBM-360 punch cards a lot faster.
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion." - Democritus
Does this mean Dan Quayle will get credit for it?
do you have to be told? Don't open attachments from people you don't know :)
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" -- Homer Simpson
A search for sars on google reveals about three con artists trying to sell fake anti sars masks/vaccinations. It happened with the anthrax outbreak too. Through spam or google, the theives never stop. I hope most people aren't to stupid to fall for this crap.
When the telephone first came into widespread use did newspapers write articles about how the phone helped this or facilitated that?
What I'm really asking is why is this news? The Internet, designed for communication, has helped people communicate. I don't see this as a huge breakthrough.
Medication wants to be free!
Watch out Pharmaceutical Companies!
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
If Microsoft Windows ran on every server and router on the Internet, SARS would somehow be contagious online.
Quakers invent useful new technologies such as condensed milk, vacuum freezing, light yet strong furniture, etc. The Internet came from the military research and academic parts of our society, so the fact that it is useful at all and doesn't cost $600 per gold plated packet is pretty astounding.
It is a shame that though a large number of the Internet community will altruistically join the fight against SARS, voluteering thier computer's processing power and the electricity used to keep it running, while the likely (pecuniary) beneficiary will be a giant biotechnology firm, which will quickly patent any findings that are uncovered by the distributed computing program.
Since you volunteer your computer, I would bet that this fact does not need to be stated in any EULA.
Or so I saw on the Internet comic.
They did a special issue back in the '90s, which was essentially a theoretical copy of Wired from about 20-ish years in the future. At any rate, one of the stories was about how mankind was almost wiped out by this horrific plague...which originated in China, interestingly enough...and the massive social change that resulted from it. There were two keys to developing a cure, in the story, one of them being that we'd cracked the human genome, which gave us an edge on understanding the virus' interaction with our DNA. The other key was the internet, because it allowed the remaining surviving researchers to collaboarate without physical proximity or risk of contagion. You see, most of the medical research community had been wiped out when they gathered for an emergency global conference...the disease was horrifically contagious. I wish I still had a copy of that issue, it was amazing.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
scientists who cracked SARS' genetic code credit the Internet
That's great. Now they know what it looks like. But, beyond that...... It seems to me that a great deal of effort is being placed on genetic squencing lately but, I haven't seen any advantages yet. They talk about using it for developing a vaccine or cure for the various diseases and I suppose that may happen in the future. Right now however, it seems that having a picture or genetic sequence of whatever virus isn't yielding much more than a poster for the wall. I can't help but wonder if time and effort wouldn't be better spent by these scientists concentrating on these diseases from more traditional angles.
Yep. Figured I was alone.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Let me report the situation in Hong Kong. Perhaps this is the first regional economic hub to be affected, and well, it got hit pretty hard.
The tourism industry is down by 70%, restaurants, bars and popular entertainment spots, well, empty as people are staying at home.
However, there are industries that are surfing tidal waves that's sweeping the economy; and Internet has been one of them.
I just called the sales manager of our service provider, and business has never been so good in years! This is due to companies that's cancelling their business trips and meetings, conferences, etc has to be done online. Phones have been ringing non-stop, with queries from companies to speed up and upgrade their internet access. I guess that's the break that all these internet companies have been waiting for!!!
People suspected of contracting SARS are quarantined for 10 days; but communicate with their families via videophone donated by the telecommunication companies and the government.
Technology has never found better use, and importance!
Also enjoying boom are, the facemask industry, the herbal medicine industry (chinese herbs which are slow stock for a few years have been wiped out by hungry consumers), television industry, and, the food snack (instant noodles, etc).
Perhaps this is the break that this fast-paced region needs: some time to rest, breathe easy for a while. It isn't long before the pace picks up again and everything resumes to normal!
HKSAR territory resident, SARS-free for 5 weeks...
Actually, in BC, the Internet served an incredibly important role.
In Canada, one of the most remarkable things about the SARS outbreak (at least, IMHO) is that Vancouver, which is Canada's gateway to the pacific region, saw a relatively small SARS outbreak, as compared to Toronto, or many asian countries. This despite the fact that many infected travellers either passed through their airports, or actually disembarked there.
Recently, this fact was discussed in a piece on the CBC. In response, the BC health officials said they had been aware that something was coming down the pipe for some time now. This was possible, in part, because the Internet allowed for quick distribution of information regarding the mysterious disease outbreak in China. Many websites had been warning for months that there appeared to be a mysterious "atypical pneumonia" in existence, and that health officials in other countries should be on their toes. As a result, the BC health ministry requested that all hospitals immediately quarantine any patients who exhibited signs of atypical pneumonia.
This experience contrasts with what occured in Toronto, where the first SARS patient was admitted to a hospital, and, because the doctors there had no inkling about this upcoming disease, placed the patient in a room with two other patients, who also developed SARS. And thus began the outbreak in Toronto which, while in the end was handled quite well, still presented a serious challenge, as they simply weren't prepared for it.
So, in the end, BC fared very well. Why? Because the health officials there kept their ears to the ground. And they were able to do this, in part, because the Internet allowed them to gain and share information amongst one another quickly and easily.
When the newspapers were reporting mortality rates of 2-3%, I was reading the regular SARS updates on The Agonist that made a convincing case for mortality rates of greater than 10%. Sure enough, a week later than the papers were also quoting 10%
Symantec keeps them pretty busy these days.
Kidding, folks. Only kidding...
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
The Internet has also been useful in containing the outbreak by facilitating online discussion by ER doctors. Not mentioned in the stories is that Toronto researchers who were in quarantine were able to stay in touch.
Like, this was SOOO impossible to do before the internet!! We are so totally lucky to be alive in this age dude!
Last I heard the Canadians were saying that only 80 per cent of the people with SARS had that particular coronavirus, and 15 per cent of some samples of people with bad colds but no SARS did have that coronavirus.
While sequencing the virus seems generally useful, shouldn't these people be finding a pathogen ? You know, saving lives as opposed to rushing for the publication and the grant before the hype dies down ?
While I do support the open source movement, perhaps we should stress caution when it comes to the genetic code of viruses. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to have that type of thing floating around the internet.
If only we could harness the true power of the Internet, and somehow embed distributed computing clients into pr0n. Cure for cancer in 10 minutes.
One of the major problems facing us with regard to pandemics thesedays is air travel. In the past, SARS would not have spread directly from Hong Kong to Toronto for example.
The Internet also provides help in this area by making it less necessary to make physical trips to do business or keep in touch with friends and family.
One of the recent trends in Business Continuity Planning for example is considering the idea of a the virtual workplace as a hot site. How useful is a physical backup location if your workers can't sit in the same room together for medical reasons? For this reason, I suspect the Internet will continue to play an increasingly important role in emergency management.
www.powerweb.net/sars has a mirror of the downloads from d2ol.
/.ed again
windows, mac and linux
just incase d2ol gets
VotW (Virii of the World) has sued the scientists who reverse engineered the SARS' genetic code. Claiming 250 billions dollars in lost revenue against the these so called 'scientists' and the Internet.
More at 11.
I live in Malaysia, which is relatively safe from SARS
I wouldn't really proclaim that it's "relatively safe from SARS" : All it takes it one infected person. Toronto (I am sitting in a building beside First Canadian Place in downtown Toronto right now...ground zero, if you will, of the Canadian epidemic) has suffered billions of dollars of economic damage, and some 23 deaths, because one sneezing person came home from a visit to Hong Kong. No one is safe from SARS, and the reality is that after we've got the vectors from the first person (which has largely been heroic health care staff who deserve tremendous respect), it's only a plane ride away from the next guy, and then it's all started again. For those who thought this was just a disease the elderly should worry about (as a hilarious Daily Show humored "If you're 80 with respiratory illness, you should make your peace with God before you go around licking doorknobs"), note that here in Toronto we've had a 39 and a 44 year old, both with no other reported medical conditions, die from SARS.
BTW: For those who think asking some questions at the airport, or doing thermal scans, are protection, realize that while they're better than nothing, they really are more of an illusion of safety than a true protection: They depend upon a person to be in a very specific state of the disease to be evident, but it's still extremely likely to get by in prior or latter stages, at which point it starts all over again. Why Toronto got hit hard while other cities didn't is largely a result of blind (bad) luck than anything else.
Thankfully the virus suspected, the coronavirus, they have had some success making vaccines for (unlike most other virses), so there is hope against this disease that is currently causing about a 6-7% death rate, and some claim that a vaccine is right around the corner. That'll hold us over until the next disease filters out of the "intensive livestock" of the provinces of China which has been quite effective at incompetently exporting weapons of mass destruction.
The interenet:
The world's most complex and intricate machine, of variable size and of huge expense to the world's resources, used to crack the genetic code of SARS, which makes a cure possible.
OR.....
A white hanky:
A small white rectangle of tightly woven cloth, totally impervious to SARS, which provides absolute protection to its spread. Simply cover mouth and nose with said cloth to prevent infection.
Yay white hanky!
this internet thing allowed communication? next you'll be saying it will allow you to communicate with peopel on the other side of the world....
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
> Not mentioned in the stories is that Toronto
> researchers who were in quarantine were able to
> stay in touch.
What, they couldn't call each other?
Importan SARS work, pr0n, goatse.cx, Kazaa... Is there anything the Internet can't do?
Trolling is a art,
As a bit of clarification if any Torontonian calls me on my declaration of downtown Toronto as "Ground Zero": Ground zero is really Scarborough to the East, however I was speaking more with symbology of the visualization of Toronto by the world. Cheers!
I can't say that I have anthing urgent to communicate via email, but the thought of people like these having to wade through all that crap makes me very angry, very angry indeed! *huff*huff*!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Isn't there a risk that a SARS virus will fall into the computer, get digitized by the onboard sequencer, and get transmitted down the Internet?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Now they need to get to work on finding a cure for that damn T-Virus. ... ooooh SARS i thought you said STARS my bad.
Who came up with this jaw-dropping insight?
Though that's easy to get given all of the trolls, it's the first comment I've found interesting in this story.
I don't know about you guys but since the SARS scare, I've been checking out for deals to go to Toronto. Some people might say I'm crazy, but hey! Check this out: Free Trip to T.O.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
As someone in public health, I can see both sides of the story.
Certainly, being able to share information quickly with others is useful. My scientific collaborations are (literally) all over the globe whereas 10 years ago I was lucky to be able to collaborate with labs within a few hundred miles.
But science works best by putting forth hypotheses, testing them, and eliminating the false ones. A downside of the net is that these hypotheses get spread as facts, are then amplified by the media, and then the truth gets ignored since a negative finding doesn't seem newsworthy as the original sensation.
SARS is bad, but it luckly hasn't been that bad so far in US (no deaths...*yet*). And I think undeserving of the sheer amount of attention it has received. But sexy new killer diseases always trump real boring old threats to your well being. SARS even managed to trump an otherwise other guaranteed reporting of the recent outbreak of Ebola in Africa. Let alone the much bigger but mundane killer of influenza (flu).
And in the age of HIPAA, you have to extrememly careful about what and how you share any kind of patient information (check out the forms the next visit to your physician or pharmacy). You cannot compromise patient confidentiality but it happens, due to ignorance or lazyiness, far too often.
Are you saying in your post that you'd rather they didn't do this research?
keep trolling with your leftist agenda. it's sad that a post like that passes for insightful or interesting. The fact is, this is a good thing. I'm sure if you spent the time creating what they're doing, you'd want something in return.
This helps everyone. From people in toronto to china to the US. Finding a cure for sars will restore confidence in travel and economies. I know toronto in particular has had a bad hit from the bad publicity.
Anti-establishment, anti-capitalism types push this off as a bad thing that only helps corporations. Clearly they haven't though it thorugh, or they're just living in lala land.
why isn't anyone doing anything about this!
if i click on my inbox will i get sars from it?
this is not funny...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
SARS can live on in patients The damned thing can stick around for at least a month.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
The Internet also produces funky websites about SARS like this.
I laughed my ass off when I stumbled across this by accident.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I guess they never heard of phones to stay in touch? While it's no high-speed data solution, it's always there.
Science magazine decided to give free access to its reports on the sequenced genome of SARS. Rather enlightened of them.
...story scientists who cracked SARS' genetic code...
Good thing they did this in Canada; here in the U.S. they'd be arrested for DMCA violations!
You could eventually get to it from the first link in the article, but here you go.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
When there is a free bioweapon there for the taking in Hong Kong???
How long before our friends with the towels on their heads realize they can destroy a countries ecconomy just by having 10 guys show up and not report their symptoms???
While I get the distinct feeling that governments fear free and unmolested communications, and to a lesser extent corperations, they must also realize it's importance.
In the United States of America, durring it's forming, we included free and open communication as part of the supreem law of the land. Nothing can trump it.
By voicing ideas, by communicating there is no problem that cannot be solved. Sure a good right can also be used by a bad person to some evil ends. That happens. But that is a price of this freedom.
Still the benefits always out weigh any problems.
Help keep alive the right of free and open communication, the right of the people to gather peaceably assemble(online or in person). If you don't have this right where you live. I firmly believe you should have it. Do what you can to insure you keep or gain this right.
Know you rights...
First Amendment
Crongress shall make no law respecing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free excercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peacably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
-- Prepared at the direction of, or to be sent to Legal Counsel, in anticipation of litigation. Attorney Client Pri
j00 got pnwed by the sars.
"SARS joines a very small list of viruses that cannot infect any Windows OS."
Hey, why don't we wait until SARS kill tens of thousands of people to do somthing about it.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Here's a media site with other good links.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
But I felt that I just had to chime in ;)
Karma's a bitch....
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
Maybe first Canadian Place is the country's economic ground zero (as Bay Street's being the Wall St. of Canada and 1st Canadian being a hub of that area), But as for the actual virus contanimation zone, it was mostly held to Scarborough. The hardest hit Torontonians are those in the Asian shops and restaurants in China Town (there are several of these in the Greater Toronto Area), due to hysteria and ignorance which has been thankfully absent from most of the Slashdotter posts.
I went to battle MC Escher but drew a blank
The entire reason for the Toronto case was inept health care workers that were not on the lookout for these symptoms. BC has not had the kind of outbreak we (Toronto) has had because their healthcare people were on the lookout for these cases. Toronto just put them in a semi-private room and caused the infection of 2 others, and so on. They even sent some home to retirement homes causing the entire place to be quarantined.
Sure there have been some "younger" people die from SARS in Toronto but most are very old. One was 99 years old.
A nurse travelled on a commuter train from Toronto to Burlington and back WITHOUT INFECTING ANYBODY.
Don't tell me no one is safe. That's like saying no one is safe from lightning strikes. That's just sensationalism. If you are not around a hospital with an infected person, you have no chance of contacting the virus. All right, it's not zero, but you have a more likely chance of being struck crossing the street.
Stop the sensationalism.
In this day and age, it is foolish to assume journalistic due diligence.
Don't base your numbers on things you've heard (no deaths in U.S.), or reported in the media (Singapore is in dire conditions).
Get numbers from the source: WHO
The U.S. has 2 confirmed deaths and 54 total cases.
Singapore has had 0 new cases for quite some time now. There has been, however, a local chain of transmission (hence the SARS affected designation).
Mod parent down.
Of course no one is 100% safe, but there is not an epidemic in Canada. The only place you could possibly make a case for there being an epidemic of SARS is rural china.
More people have died from being hit by cars in the past few weeks in toronto than have died from SARS. I'd say you are safer in toronto than in the states...at least your are less likely to get shot.
The entire reason for the Toronto case was inept health care workers that were not on the lookout for these symptoms
Yes, because every single health care worker in Ontario is inept, and every single health care worker in BC is brilliant and informed. BULLSHIT, and it points a giant flashlight on your naevity. Both system of health care workers have access and knowledge of the same information (Ontario's government put out the same alert as BC), but BC got LUCKY (yes, LUCKY) because the front-line worker who got the first case happened to be one rare individual who kept up on the updates, while Toronto got unlucky that the front-line worker there didn't. I assure you, and I'll say this with certainty, that both locals probably have the same ratio of people who follow the medical listservs and those who don't. Don't buy into the politicizing BS lines from those who want to use a situation for their political advantage.
Sure there have been some "younger" people die from SARS in Toronto but most are very old.
Did I say otherwise? There have been a 39 and a 44 year old healthy males dying. The doctor who first alerted the West was in perfect shape and died at 44 in Hong Kong. There are very few illnesses that do that in a 10 day period (and they are among the world's most feared).
A nurse travelled on a commuter train from Toronto to Burlington and back WITHOUT INFECTING ANYBODY.
Thanks for the lesson, Sherlock. The funny thing is that I take that GO train. The nurse in question didn't talk or sneeze during the entire ride, which was likely the saving grace. In Hong Kong whole apartment complexes, or a large percentage thereof, have come down with it just by going by each other in common areas, and you're pretending they have to French kiss each other to get it.
If you are not around a hospital with an infected person, you have no chance of contacting the virus.
Did you miss the whole point of my message? A individual in Malaysia claimed that they were "safe" from SARS in Malaysia : No they aren't. It's one guy who thinks he has a cold and is too manly to see his doctor that could cause a major outbreak. We have it contained in Canada due to extraordinary measures of health care workers (despite the know-it-all armchair criticism of assholes like you, or politicians trying to score some point by stabbing them in the back), but it takes just one more guy flying in, and one more bit of bad luck. This holds true for the entire world, btw, not just Canada. As a Canadian I'm under little increased risk than a guy in Phoenix or New Zealand : Unless you shut down global travel...
Stop the sensationalism.
Oh, gee, I'm sorry. 6% death rate. 23 dead in Toronto alone (ignore the indirect death rate, which is those that are going to die because of deferred treatment due to a devastated health care system). SARS is very likely to take hold in third world nations that can't effectively contain it, and it may very well become a part of life. Sticking your head in the sand and proclaiming that it's no biggie.
Right now, the response to SARS can be considered to be disproportionate. However, SARS seems to have been a recent member of human-infecting virii and may refine its infectiousness through rapid mutation/evolution. Stopping it now can save many lives later on.
Just imagine if the first hundred people with AIDS were quarantined. How many lives would that have saved?
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Shamelessly taken from http://bowlingforcolumbine.com/library/fear/index
The press (and the people that pay attention to it) like to sensationalize things about 1) disease 2) man against man "crimes" 3) weather/natural disasters. When in actuality your much more likely to die from any number of other accidents than being a "victem" of these headline incidents.
One thing I hold pride about Canada, versus say China, is that we don't bullshit, and we're very transparent: We _did_ have a short lived epidemic (which is that it quickly spread) that some heroic healthcare got under control. Being pedantic about terminology just reeks of information supression.
I'd say you are safer in toronto than in the states...at least your are less likely to get shot.
You absolutely are safer in absolute terms, and indeed you seem a little defensive that I mentioned "Toronto" and "SARS" in the same paragraph. Yes your chance of getting SARS visiting Toronto is negligable (and certainly far less than being mugged in New York), however my whole point was that this is not, and has never been, a "Toronto" problem : We live in a world of jetliners and quick travel - It's a world problem. Do you think SARS will disappear into the ether? Of course it won't. It'll likely take hold in several third world nations where it'll reappear in the "First World" every so often, at tremendous costs.
They have the internet on Computers Now?
Scientists have only identified the virus in only about 40% of the patients infected with SARS, and they have identified in patients who DON'T have SARS. Which means that cracking the genetic code of this virus will mean exactly jack sh*t for finding a cure.
just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
Western technology has successfully fought the Chinese cover up. The Internet and the blinding speed with which it transmits information has effectively thwarted all attempts by the Chinese to cover up their problem. In fact, here is a sampling of the information about SARS that is readily available from the Internet.
"How the 'global village' faced SARS"
"Experts Expect SARS to Continue Spreading"
"More SARS Cases Are Reported; Virus Found to Persist in Patients"
"China and SARS"
15 years ago, if an epidemic like SARS had erupted, I would have had a much harder time in finding information describing its origin and its symptoms. Now, thanks to the Internet, I know that the Chinese in Southern China "helped" to develop this disease by sleeping with farm animals. The virus crossed the species barrier from, probably, a pig into humans. The Chinese then covered up the problem and, thus, helped to spread it to the rest of the world. According to the latest reports, the SARS virus will now become a permanent part of this world.
Isn't this tired myth dead yet?
Fuck, I just debunked it less than two weeks ago. Guess you're one of the millions who don't browse at +3. :-)
It was all about research. Not necessarily acedemic, but research.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
>the know-it-all armchair criticism of assholes like you
pot. kettle. black.
The cure for SARS is chicken noodle soup, Dayquill and a Sprite.
And on a slightly related topic, if we want to take over a few more countries, all we have to do is rub Chinese people on some blankets and give the blankets as peace offerings.
apocalyptic fool
Experts say SARS virus mutating quickly Happy happy..
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Greg Bear won a Nebula for Darwin's Radio in 2001, the book was published in 1999. In this book there is a retrovirus that they are trying to figure out, and they use the Internet as a large scale method of publishing information on it.
Deuteronomy 13:06-9
According to the may 2nd report on CBC news, SARS has killed at =~ 418 people worldwide.
Compare this with annual deaths from the flu [proratenih.com] which kills approximately =~ 36000 people in the USA alone.
What the fuck?
The flu situation is not expected to get much worse. The SARS situation will get far far worse unless strong rapid action is taken. That's what.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
When you read Randy Shlitz's book "And the band played on" you'll meet a flight attendent from Canada who was reponsible for spreading AIDS across North America. He was called "patient zero". Had sex with hundreds of other guys who often became the first AIDS patients in their towns.
I bet this makes him a proud poppa.
And to your friends that are disgusted with the Internet, I'd say it doesn't sound like your they have discovered Fark.com... at least someone keeps abreast of the kitten population crisis.
TTFN
is as a communication tool. Thats why in the past 50 years we have invented more than at any other time in history. as the world becomes networked, it becomes easier to work together. problems on one side of the world are connected with resources on the other side.
Yes, when I proclaimed that we were making quick headway creating a vaccine for SARS, that was apocalyptic. Whatever.
There are a lot of people, probably including yourself, that believe that by proclaiming the best, it'll magically come about. This tends to be a Western phenomena, which is why we don't wear masks in public: It offends us if someone else wears a mask because that weakens our delusion of invincibility.
SARS and the internet?!?! I'd better update my virus protection.
Who benefits?
www.sarstravel.com
I mean, think of all the political manpulation that would have failed if the TV wasn't there to keep the fear alive!
Scientists who cracked SARS genetic code credit the media scare as a key: 'Without this massive media scare, we'd probably be busy working on AIDS', jokes Steven Jones. Other contributing factors included the availability of Mountain Dew, the fact that most of the researchers went to college, and Top Ramen.
As has been said by many other rational folks, SARS is nothing compared to many of the other diseases that plague mankind. The half a million deaths from your regular, everday flu is a number from WHO and that's in a normal year. The number goes up much higher in epidemic years. And if you check the WHO website now, its says 3,000 AFrican children die every DAY from malaria. If adults and non-Africans are included in the count, over 1 millions deaths a year. And then of course there's AIDS and TB. Even good old measles killed 777,000 in 2001. So SARS is really minor minor league. While the quarantine and strict airport precautions are justified to prevent its spread, the hysteria is causing so much more damage than the disease itself.
Just imagine if the first hundred people with AIDS were quarantined. How many lives would that have saved?
Almost all of them, minus 100.
Of course you have to identify who these hundred people are, or else you can't really quarantine them. By the time 100 people have been identified as having a disease, a couple thousand people might be walking around with it.
I have a better idea- quarantine patient zero!
Yeah, sure, the flu kills lot more people.
Why? It's everywhere, so more people catch it. SARS isn't, yet, but if it's belittled, it just may be.
SARS fatality rates may not be any worse than those of the influenza, but even if it's only equal, that's bad enough, if it's not caught in time, in few years we may have TWO flu-like unstoppaple diseases that BOTH kill 40000 people a year. Not to mention those economic losses. I don't think that's anything to be looking forward to, little bit of blowing out of proportion is helluva lot better than your irresponsible pooh-poohing.
6-7% death rate
Unfortunately you cannot believe everything you read in print nor what WHO tells you. There are multiple ways of estimating the death rate. WHO has been using a crude metric where they take the total number of deaths over the total number of reported cases. This yields 7.0% as of today. A better estimate is to take the total number of discharged deaths over the sum of discharges and deaths. This gives 13.9% to date. We can also consider the previous calculation but using moving averages of recent discharges and recent deaths. For example the 7-day and 14-day moving averages would yield 23.4% and 21.0% death rates respectively. WHO's method has yielded a continuously rising death rate which has confused many people into thinking that the virus has mutated and become more deadly, but this is just silly. The reality is likely that the death rate has always been north of 15% and possibly as high as 20%. Incidentally mainland china has seen death rates using the moving average method in the 30-35% range. If that holds then SARS is as deadly as smallpox was in its hey day. It is a shame that WHO has been reporting the death rate in such a decieving way because if governments truly understood how dangerous this virus is then I suspect a stronger response would be in order. It is still very possible to contain SARS however it will require mainland china to step up its efforts and probably require using its millitrary to quarentine infected cities and blockade ports (yes, it has already become this serious.) In the last 2 weeks, mainland china has seen the number of active cases (aggregate cases less dischared patients and dead people) increase by a factor of 7. The rest of the world has SARS handedly contained but mainland china has transistioned into epedimic like growth curves. Another way in which SARS information has been poorly reported is that the aggregate cases is the number usually reported. This number is entirely irrelevent as is the number of new cases on a day by day basis. What is important is the number of active cases and the change in the number of active cases (neither number is reported directly by WHO.)
I hope the Scientists/ Doctors find a cure/ Vaccine.
The Woman I love with all of my Heart is currently in Asai visiting her family.
She will be there for atleast a few Months more and I hope she will stay safe.
http://www.Slaveway.com