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Nine people have died of 133 confirmed cases in the tiny city state -- a rate of 6.7 percent, above the global average of about four percent. It has the world's fourth-highest number of cases.

I remain convinced that the current mortality rates are being suppressed by the tendency of first presenters to receive highest quality care. When the ventilators are all occupied, that mortality rate of 4% or 6% will climb.

I agree, and it seems that Hong Kong will soon be to that point. The length of hospitalization appears to average about three weeks, as the total number of patients 21 days ago (203) exceeds the combined total of the dead and the released (201). If the disease continues to spread at its present rate, the hospitals will be overwhelmed.

I remain convinced that the current mortality rates are being suppressed by the tendency of first presenters to receive highest quality care. When the ventilators are all occupied, that mortality rate of 4% or 6% will climb.

Looks that way to me too.

Another factor interfering with statistics and holding down current mortality rates is the inclusion of "suspected" patients who do not actually have SARS. Most of these patients are doing well, just as non-specific pneumonia cases always have. Their favorable outcomes are causing many people (including some Freepers) to think SARS is not really that bad.

This factor is especially pronounced in the United States. The U.S. is using such an extremely broad definition for "suspected" SARS that just about anyone who has been through an infected area and gets a cold could be diagnosed as "suspected" SARS.

I can see why our doctors want to err on the side of caution. But this has led to the perception among the public that SARS is somehow not as severe in the U.S., and/or that the concern is overblown in general.