4,000 Quarantined in Beijing as Suspected SARS Cases Climb

New York Times ^ | 4/25/2003 | Erik Eckolm

[Democratic_Machiavelli]

That might explain why 300 college students are being sent to military training camps, not hospitals.

[NittanyLion]

By your logic the disease should have felled the Philadelphia Flyers. Let's get a grip, folks.

It appears the latest mutation causes rapid hemorrhaging within the Maple Leafs' defensive zone, and extreme malaise in the net...

[ContemptofCourt]

Personally, I would like to see travel banned too and from any infected country.

Yes, lets all lock ourselves in our houses.....

[Smogger]

Yes, lets all lock ourselves in our houses.....

Nice hyperbole. I can see how a travel ban to China/Toronto equates to "let's all lock ourselves in our houses."

[ContemptofCourt]

You said that you "would like to see travel banned too and from any infected country." As the US and Canada are infected, you would be banning travel to and from North America....does that mean no imports or exports, either?

Last week I travelled to Niagara Falls...I stayed in a hotel (for 3 days!) and, believe it or not, I have not contracted SARS and I am not dead.

I agree that it is unwise to travel to China.

[-YYZ-]

"The outbreak in Toronto is traceable back to a single source and has not broken out of the original contact groups. The people who died are almost all elderly people with prior significant health conditions. Should people not travel to an American city during a bad flu..."

Tell it, brother, but don't expect certain panicky / Canada-hating people here to get it. For some it's just a chance to grind their axe against Canada's socialized health care. For others it's a chance to futher their grudge against Canada for not supporting the invasian of Iraq. Some sick bastards even seem quite gleeful about it.

Having read the Mark Steyn article on the subject, I believe he may be correct that our system dropped the ball in the early days of this outbreak, and that may be due to some problems in our socialized health care system. Still, for the most part once SARS was recognized for the danger it is, it had been treated pretty seriously here, and further transmission seems to have stopped now. Yes, some people may have broken their voluntary quarantine, but I doubt if public health authorities anywhere in the western world were ready to forcibly quarantine suspected cases. Once this is past and we reexamine events, that may change for future cases.

Did you see the Steyn piece on this subject, btw? Find it here: http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=88370F42-163E-4959-9867-00F390C7368C
Is he correct, or is he just grinding his axe?

[mitchbert]

Is he correct, or is he just grinding his axe?

I did see the Post article (I'm a subscriber) and I don't think Mark was grinding an axe, though I admit being surprised as my personal experiences with Scarborough Grace have been excellent. Still, the bit about being stuck on a guerny in a high traffic area disturbed me as this is a far too common occurrence in Toronto hospitals.

For some it's just a chance to grind their axe against Canada's socialized health care.

Very true and while the system does have some very serious problems, not the least of which being clogged by people who use emergency wards like family medical offices, Canadian health care is far from the brink of collapse.

Overall I've been impressed how the medical officials have been handling this...daily news conferences with a clear willingness to say what they do and don't know, absence of CYA-speech, and little if any political grandstanding. There's some carping, and justifiable IMO, about the slow reaction of some politicians particularly the grand poobah from Shawinigan (golf with Klinton is much more important than anything, doncha know) but on balance probably the last thing we need is endless prognostications from the politicos.

It looks increasingly like we're getting a handle on this problem. The next week will really be critical. Either we shut this down for the most part or it breaks out. I suspect the former will be closer to the outcome.

Cheers, eh!

[glory]

Your post makes me think of the Chinese woman who was pregnant who died from SARS last week. She and her husband lived in the hard hit apartment complex. She was only 33, however pregnancy lowers your immune system, mainly so the female body won't attack the infant which is half biologically the fathers. They gave her an immediate C-section to save the baby--she died, her husband recovered. Her immune system compromised by pregnancy=death, her husband healthy=recovery. Many of the seemingly "healthy" 30's and 40's dying may have had compromised immune systems in some way, even if they were just recovering from another minor illness. I can tell you that when I was pregnant with my son I got a wicked case of bronchitis which only manifested itself as a mild cold in the rest of my family. My psorisis that is aggrevated by an overactive immune system is all but gone when my immune system is suppressed in pregnancy too. I think the suppressed immune system is why pregnant women are encouraged to get a flu shot if a certain portion of their pregnancy will occur during flu season. I'm no immunologist, but just elaborating on some specific instances.

[Prince Charles]

Make it a double feature: watch "The Omega Man" afterwards. It's a look at Los Angeles a few years after a biowar between Russia and China.

[cake_crumb]

"There are forms of the Asian flu with close to a 10% fatality rate? Explain... "

The DEATH rate for SARS is 5.9 %. I don't know where you came up with 10%.

1998/99 had two types that season. 8% mortality rate. Higher than SARS. Both of my daughers were very sick with the type B. There was no flu shot for the type B that year. That was another flu that caught WHO with it's pants down, so to speak. Hubby cought it too that year. He had pneumonia for the first time in his life. He'd had a flu shot....but it was for the type A, which apparently gave no protection for the type B.

[cake_crumb]

Sorry...SARS fatality rate is 5.8%, not 5.5%. I shouldn't have tried to go from memory.

Source

[cake_crumb]

"Like the weaponized Anthrax and possibly West NileFever one might reasonably take it very seriously."

I'm taking it seriously. I took West Nile seriously when it was dangerous, because I had it and wound up in the hospital. I just don't think we ought to get totally hysterical about it yet, I don't believe all the people incarcerated in China have SARS until I see proof, and I don't trust the WHO to save us from ANYTHING.

[cake_crumb]

"That might explain why 300 college students are being sent to military training camps, not hospitals."

Yes, that IS an interesting place to put deathly ill people.

[cake_crumb]

"I doubt if public health authorities anywhere in the western world were ready to forcibly quarantine suspected cases."

China is, and military training camps are a mighty strange place to quarantine them in.

[Betty Jo]

George Bush as President has added SARS to the list of communicable diseases that qualify for quarantine.

You may want to read the regs of Homeland Security and find out that yes, indeed, America can and will forcefully take people from their homes and put them where they want.

The visions of biosuited soldiers with flamethrowers from all the movies will come to reality prety quick in my opinion.

Two more just died in Toronto.Total dead 18.

[Betty Jo]

FOX Catherine Herridge just said one of the two newly deceased in Toronto was a healthy 44 yeal old man.

She then said something about "young people", but I couldnt get it.

[TexasRepublic]

Listen to this

[Betty Jo]

http://www.wtam.com/local_news.html#57

A possible SARS victim was in Cleveland Airport, spent night at hotel.

[montag813]

GOD FORBID WE DEFEND OUR BORDERS AGAINST NEW AND DEADLY DISEASES...WE MIGHT OFFEND SOMEONE.

[kevao]

Yes, lets all lock ourselves in our houses.....

Will all that duct tape and plastic sheeting I bought protect me from SARS? I'd really like to get some use out of the stuff.