Baghdad Bob should not have offed himself. The Dean of Denial gets more calls for help than Batman ever did.

Toranto unsafe because of all the French wannabe's

OK...if the SARS wont get you in Toronto, the stupid French attitude will.

Let's face it...does anyone want their child marrying anyone who voted for Crettien?

Don't matter one way or the other,
Just wouldn't go to Toronto.

>>Wednesday, government officials in Canada's largest city angrily dismissed the travel advisory as an overreaction.

Let me see some of those "govt officials" french-kissing a few SARS patients first, then I'll decide if I think it is safe to travel to Toronto...

Canadian officials have lashed out at the World Health Organization

WHO: Identify possible SARS victims!

CANADA: Oh no we couldn't do that. It would be discriminatory.

WHO: Quarantine contaminated patients.

CANADA: Oh no, that would be oppressive.

WHO: Require preventative measures in your Hospitals.

CANADA: That would cost too much money.

WHO: Publish public advisories.

CANADA: No! That might endanger tourism and commerce.

WHO: SARS seems to be more aggressive in Toronto than any other place in North America and Canada doesn't seemt to be doing anything about that.

CANADA: HEY! NOW THAT'S UNCALLED FOR!

"Canadian officials have lashed out at the World Health Organization for including Toronto among the places travelers should avoid because of the spread of the pnuemonia-like viral illness from Asia, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. "

No doubt that it was this kind of reaction that stopped WHO from issuing travel advisories back when it was just 150 cases in Asia.

Because they failed to act then, almost 4300 now have it. Toronto officials should be thanking WHO for finally trying to stop the spread instead of downplaying the illness and waiting until 100,000 people in toronto have it and no one wants to go to Toronto even for necessary business and the whole city grinds to a halt.

Quite the contrast between how SARS and AIDS is being controlled. I wonder if the left will notice?

..."Fail to act" or are prevented from action. The CDC may need to take a close look at WHO procedures and nip these problems in the bud before we get a similar situation in a major American city like Chicago or Seattle. The ACLU will surely be active at obstructing the CDC attempts at quarantine of outbreaks. USAMRID will be more immune to legal obstruction, but that will expose the Administration to political savagery by Leftists grazing for issues. It will only take Erwin Chemerinsky sueing the administration or CDC on behalf of quarantined individuals to cause the kind of delay in action that could prove disasterous.

"Quite the contrast between how SARS and AIDS is being controlled. I wonder if the left will notice? "

There is a contrast, but SARS is transmitted so much easier than AIDS. At least until AIDS mutates into something more dangerous.

I don't expect the left to complain that we should have quaranteened AIDS carriers. So I don't really see what they can say.

"..."Fail to act" or are prevented from action"

Fail to act. I think WHO had the authority but were just afraid to yell fire, until enough people had burned. The wording of their early on statement was something like "We don't think travel restrictions are appropriate". Two weeks later world travel had obviously nosedived, because nobody wanted to be on a plane.

I think the CDC has already looked at the procedures some. They sent Tommy Thompson to get presidential authorization for involuntary quarantines if necessary. And he got it. Although they did say they would only use it if people were unwilling to abide by voluntary quarantines.

The ACLU won't be able to obstruct CDC quarantines. They can fight it in court afterwards, but will be no more effective than fighting to free the terrorists. The CDC and this president will not back down just because of one ACLU suit. And the ACLU will probably think twice before initiating it, if there is not some substantial doubt about the threat. Otherwise they would lose and set a precedent.

I wouldn't go to Canada anyway.

Memo to all you Canadians here in South Florida: Please go home.

Actually, Canada is being as tough as it can be on SARS. Last week, my mom, who has MS, had a bad fall and was hospitalized. Right now, all hospitals in Canada are under quarantine. I wanted to go up to visit, but was told that absolutely no visitors are allowed in any hospital in Ontario. My mom is in Windsor (about 200 miles from Toronto and without any SARS cases) and no friends or family can visit. They are paranoid about health care workers getting SARS. The two people in Toronto that have SARS and violated quaratine were a doctor and a nurse. Both were extremely upset that they could not work or leave home, so they did anyway. THe nurse took the crowded subway and the nurse's union is supporting her. THe doctor is now under home quaratine with 24/7 police cover. Canada has quarantine laws from the 18th century and has invoked them - it gives considerable power to health officials.

Canada and Toronto are having a very negastive reaction to the WHO travle advisary. It seems Canada has been such a low profile, non-contoversial nation that when the finger is pointed at them, they can't handle it.

Toronto is very proud of its diversity.

Canada's slogan to encourage summer tourism

Come to Canada, SARS only kills 10%

Actually this advisory shows just how out of touch the UN is. The SARS outbreak peaked three weeks ago and has been waning ever since but WHO waited until yesterday to issue the advisory. The truth is that every case here (130 probable in a population of 5 million) has been linked to the hospitals so unless you visit one you're safe. The CDC said that travel to Toronto is safe and that the response to the outbreak has been good.

When there was a total of 150 cases in the world, they kept assuring us that it was under control. But now we know it wasn't. What makes you so sure that it's under control in Toronto?

I say let WHO err on the conservative side. So Toronto will suffer a little economic impact as people don't travel there for 2 weeks. It's better than letting it drag on and on and on, shutting travel down for months and spreading it to other cities.

At this point they aren't even sure what causes it. They couldn't find the coronovirus in 40% of the patients that showed the symptons.

I live about an hour from downtown Toronto. I plan to go there Friday evening to meet a friend and quaff a few and have some supper at a brew pub. I have approximately zero concern about catching SARS while there. While the risk is not zero, it appears to be under control.