SARS

[KH85]

what do you all think of the SARS outbreak? do you think that they could of done more to stop the spread of the outbreak? any suggestions would be good

 

[Dari]

all this shows that the chinese can't play with the big boys unless they do some massive reforming of their political system. Secrecy no longer works in the new reality.


It also shows that more mutations of age-old animal viruses will cross the specie-barrier and enter the human system. With globalization becoming more mature, what was once isolated incidents will become commonplace. The only good thing about all of this is that a virus that kills fast and quick (like ebola) can be contained relatively easily. Whereas other viruses that take time to incubate and kill a lower percentage of their victims(AIDS and SARS, respectively) will be more of nuisance.

 

[sandorski]

At this time it's under control everywhere except China.

 

[Alistar7]

Thank god too, thanks to Canada to the US almost had a plauge unleashed on them.

Love those guys up north, deny the possibility of a terrorist attack with WMD supplied by Iraq, then bring home exactly what we were worried about anyway. You would think they would have the intelligence to make to analogy themselves....

These are part of the anti-war crowd who probably believed if a WMD was used on America they would be spared by their ideologiccal differences and protected by their imaginery borders, lmao.

 

[Windi]

Alistar7, WTF do WMD's and terrorism have to do with SARS?

Absolutely nothing.

 

[zer0burn]

I cant see how you can blame Canada...

Look at the facts the only cases that have happened within Canada is health care workers in direct contact. Family members of those health care workers, and individuals whom were at the hospital where the health care workers were...

THe reason the US got SARS was not at all from Canada however from pasengers on a plane from asia somewhere were they took 3-4 individuals off that plane that were believed to be infected...

No American has caught SARS from Canada...

So please take your Canadian bashing somewhere else.

 

[mastertech01]

Maybe the Chinese were experimenting with bio weapons and it got out of containment. They sure wanted to keep it highly secretive and refuse to give out much information about it. I know thats a stretch but hell who knows these days.

 

[aznparty]

Originally posted by: Dari
all this shows that the chinese can't play with the big boys unless they do some massive reforming of their political system. Secrecy no longer works in the new reality.


It also shows that more mutations of age-old animal viruses will cross the specie-barrier and enter the human system. With globalization becoming more mature, what was once isolated incidents will become commonplace. The only good thing about all of this is that a virus that kills fast and quick (like ebola) can be contained relatively easily. Whereas other viruses that take time to incubate and kill a lower percentage of their victims(AIDS and SARS, respectively) will be more of nuisance.

How iz poplitical system have to do with SARS? If anything, it shows China needs to do more in their medical field to deal with outbreaks of new viruses like SARS. If SARS originated in New York, its gonna spread just as bad.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Hysteria . . . just how we like it.

Yahoo (excerpts for those too lazy to read for a minute)
"But people clearly have reacted to it with a level of fear that is incommensurate with the size of the problem and I think it is getting in the way of a reasonable response."

WHO has praised Vietnam for its response -- which was to immediately call for international help in handling its own outbreak of SARS. WHO has declared Vietnam to be free of SARS.


"This thing literally never would have happened on anything like the scale it happened if the Chinese had been open about it from the beginning," Baltimore said.

Much can be blamed on media coverage, Baltimore said. "What we are seeing is a playing up of the things that make people worry," he said.

But, he added, perhaps scary reports are just giving readers and viewers what they want.

"In some sense people like to be frightened," he said. "And so, to some extent what I am saying is a denial of what seems to be a basic human instinct -- to get a sort of frisson (shiver) of excitement out of danger. And the press is playing into that."

 

[sMiLeYz]

Originally posted by: Windi
Alistar7, WTF do WMD's and terrorism have to do with SARS?

Absolutely nothing.

Thats exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: Alistar7
Thank god too, thanks to Canada to the US almost had a plauge unleashed on them.

Love those guys up north, deny the possibility of a terrorist attack with WMD supplied by Iraq, then bring home exactly what we were worried about anyway. You would think they would have the intelligence to make to analogy themselves....

These are part of the anti-war crowd who probably believed if a WMD was used on America they would be spared by their ideologiccal differences and protected by their imaginery borders, lmao.

It seems that everything's gone wrong since
Canada came along
Blame Canada!
Blame Canada!

Sheila? Is that you?

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: sMiLeYz

Originally posted by: Windi
Alistar7, WTF do WMD's and terrorism have to do with SARS?

Absolutely nothing.

Thats exactly what I was thinking.

I will keep it simple so you can keep up. SARS is an airborne virus. An airborne virus can be used as a WMD, airobrne pathogens especially. A terrorist could either release this WMD here, or come here infected himself, or release it on a plane bound for NYC, etc..

SARS is the perfect modern day example of how a simple mutation of a common virus could have global implications and a great analogoy of the possible effects of a terrorist attack using a bio weapon....

Did I lose you? Russia was supposedly working on an airborne version of EBOLA, as well as a vaccine or their own people, wouldn't it be GREAT to have some lunatic like Saddam bequeth upon the OBL of the world a nice toy like that? What were the "undisclosed" biological agents taken along with the Polio and other things? Notice there have been no reports of Iraqi citizens contracting any of the diseases they should have from looting those samples. Logic dictates they are in control of someone who has the technical knowledge to handle, move, and store them correctly, reassuring thought. Hope none of the things they couldnt even identify are not anything unseen and horrific. How does a 90% global death rate in a few weeks sound? How many of those left do you think would live through the disease caused by the decomposition of the other 4 billion bodies....?

Is SARS THAT dangerous, no, but it shows you how quickly something like that could be used as a global WMD by a single individual, with far dealier results.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Let me go slowly so you can keep up . . .

SARS airborne: Yes

Requires carrier: Almost certainly (like droplets)

Self-sustaining in environment: No

A good candidate for engineered bioweapon: NO (although now that we've got a complete genome . . . you never know)

A terrorist could either release this WMD here, or come here infected himself, or release it on a plane bound for NYC, etc.. SARS is the perfect modern day example of how a simple mutation of a common virus could have global implications and a great analogoy of the possible effects of a terrorist attack using a bio weapon....

Actually it would make a lot more sense for a terrorist to come over with multi-drug resistant TB, tularemia (bunny fever), or avian flu. Even simple influenza is a great agent considering it tallies 250K deaths globally . . . by natural incidence. It's nice to have another quack to feed the SARS hysteria but you know not what you say. You are quite correct that someone with evil intent could easily distribute an airborne agent throughout the globe (ala 12 Monkeys) but the relative risk from engineered agents is miniscule.

The true threat is already realized. The persistent encroachment of 'civilization' upon all corners of the Earth and air travel make it quite easy for NATURAL human pathogens to be disseminated. The take home message from SARS is not . . . OH MY GOD THE TERRORISTS MUST BE STOPPED BEFORE THEY KILL THE WORLD. A more apropos message . . . cover your mouth when you cough, wash your hands, get your shots (including annual flu), and . . . the global village is more than a cliche.

 

[human2k]

I'm worried about the SARS outbreak and hope that our gov. takes care of it.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

SARS outbreak in the US is extremely unlikely.

1) It almost certainly originated in China. In the absence of a clear non-human host widely disseminated across the globe, SARS will subside once China gets it's act together.

2) SARS killed very few 'otherwise healthy' people. We are not talking about TB, smallpox, Ebola, or Hanta.

3) The US variants have typically been less virulent than strains in Canada, China/HK, Singapore; likely indicative of rapid mutation. Such mutation is more likely to bias towards decreased virulence/infectivity . . . more virulent strains would be difficult to propagate before killing the host.

4) CDC has learned a valuable lesson from HIV (fear, ignorance, and politics are deadly) and China (secrecy kills, too).

5) SARS will likely subside with the change in season (like other coronaviruses). If all exposures are diligently tracked (there's something to be said for rigid states like Singapore/China) and a decent test is used . . . potential carriers can be isolated until they are no longer infectious. This task will be difficult in remote/poor areas.

 

[Dari]

What most people also don't realize is that China has been the source of most of the flu-like epidemics of the past century. With a dense population, and people living within close proximity with pigs and other animals, viruses are bound to jump the specie-barrier.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
Let me go slowly so you can keep up . . .

SARS airborne: Yes

Requires carrier: Almost certainly (like droplets)

Self-sustaining in environment: No

A good candidate for engineered bioweapon: NO (although now that we've got a complete genome . . . you never know)

A terrorist could either release this WMD here, or come here infected himself, or release it on a plane bound for NYC, etc.. SARS is the perfect modern day example of how a simple mutation of a common virus could have global implications and a great analogoy of the possible effects of a terrorist attack using a bio weapon....

Actually it would make a lot more sense for a terrorist to come over with multi-drug resistant TB, tularemia (bunny fever), or avian flu. Even simple influenza is a great agent considering it tallies 250K deaths globally . . . by natural incidence. It's nice to have another quack to feed the SARS hysteria but you know not what you say. You are quite correct that someone with evil intent could easily distribute an airborne agent throughout the globe (ala 12 Monkeys) but the relative risk from engineered agents is miniscule.

The true threat is already realized. The persistent encroachment of 'civilization' upon all corners of the Earth and air travel make it quite easy for NATURAL human pathogens to be disseminated. The take home message from SARS is not . . . OH MY GOD THE TERRORISTS MUST BE STOPPED BEFORE THEY KILL THE WORLD. A more apropos message . . . cover your mouth when you cough, wash your hands, get your shots (including annual flu), and . . . the global village is more than a cliche.

All good points, but the last thing we need is anyone INTENTIONALLY causing a situation worse than the relatively mild SARS issue. Think of this, there are diseases which only affect certain races, with genetics you could make WMD that TARGET specific RACES. Hitler's Viagra baby. Would you doubt the resolve of at least ONE Arab to use a weapon guranteed to wipe out the Jewish population of Israel?

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: Dari
What most people also don't realize is that China has been the source of most of the flu-like epidemics of the past century. With a dense population, and people living within close proximity with pigs and other animals, viruses are bound to jump the specie-barrier.

THEY ARE NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going in through NK, which is exactly why we kidnapped Kim and used an imposter to bring this current crisis to bear, all to garner international support. We even talked the Chineese into sitting at the table, what a bunch of noodles, wait until they realize we duped them and they are the other party who signed into effect a bi-lateral resolution calling for the invasion of China. We told them we wanted their autographs, suckers. How can anyone object when China said ok?