I am sick of SARS

[Ceinwyn]

Every night on the news, it's SARS. Every newsbreak, it's something to do with SARS.

I don't have it, and neither does anyone I know. Maybe it's just me, but I'm tired of hearing about this latest plague that kills, oh, nobody.

Unless anyone here knows someone who died from SARS? Please speak up, if you do.

 

[a_unique_person]

Every night on the news, it's SARS. Every newsbreak, it's something to do with SARS.

I don't have it, and neither does anyone I know. Maybe it's just me, but I'm tired of hearing about this latest plague that kills, oh, nobody.

Unless anyone here knows someone who died from SARS? Please speak up, if you do.

Nothing like a health scare to make a good story. That or a celebrity scandal.

It makes sense to deal with it. Until we understand it better, who knows what the long term result will be. But as they say, the flu will still be killing more people this year.

 

[ImpyTimpy]

Actually the death toll from SARS is rising as infected cases pile up so saying it has never killed anyone is factually incorrect. Also I remember a report saying SARS is mutating to become more and more lethal (killing younger and healthier people). Haven't seen any confirming material for it though so if anyone has more info it'd be cool.

Every night on the news, it's SARS. Every newsbreak, it's something to do with SARS.

I don't have it, and neither does anyone I know. Maybe it's just me, but I'm tired of hearing about this latest plague that kills, oh, nobody.

Unless anyone here knows someone who died from SARS? Please speak up, if you do.

 

[Ceinwyn]

Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

Also I remember a report saying SARS is mutating to become more and more lethal (killing younger and healthier people). Haven't seen any confirming material for it though so if anyone has more info it'd be cool.

This is my point exactly.

Nobody knows anything about it, nobody has friends or relatives or even acquaintances who have been killed by it or even have it, all we know is what the f*cking news tells us.

I'm going to just stop watching Canadian news, because as far as I can tell, this is alarmist bullsh*t.

edit to add: here's what I've heard about SARS:

- only old and sick people get it
- only asians get it
- once the weather warms up, it will die
- it will kill us all
- it's nothing to worry about

 

[PogoPedant]

- only old and sick people get it
- only asians get it
- once the weather warms up, it will die
- it will kill us all
- it's nothing to worry about

To add a few tidbits to your amazing database of facts:
- A handful of top chinese government officials have been sacked for covering up SARS. (Deaths in Beijing are roughly ten times as many as originally thought)
- Hong Kong Airport is virtually closed due to SARS-fright.
- It has a lethality rate of a grand whopping 4%.

Personally, I think this is the doomsdaybug. It must: It has humour, it killed the guy who was responsible for warning the world about it. The name isn't exactly doomsday-material though...

 

[Jon_in_london]

Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

Also I remember a report saying SARS is mutating to become more and more lethal (killing younger and healthier people). Haven't seen any confirming material for it though so if anyone has more info it'd be cool.

Bollocks, in order for this to be true, you would have to have carried out a complete phylogenetic study of a wide variety of SARS cases as the epidemic progresses.

This would include isolating the virus from each victim and then sequencing the virus and comparing the sequences- the results would then have to be peer-reviewed and refereed by a jounal before being published. Otherwise its nothing but a rumour.

Science works a lot more slowly than in the movies.

 

[richardm]

Re: Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

Bollocks, in order for this to be true, you would have to have carried out a complete phylogenetic study of a wide variety of SARS cases as the epidemic progresses.

Hmm, well, it's believed to be a coronavirus, which typically mutate quite rapidly. Natural selection means that some strains will be able to spread faster than others - i.e. they're more virulent. The fact that a small number of young, fit people in China have unexpectedly died from the virus recently suggests that this might be happening.

 

[HarryKeogh]

http://www.theonion.com/onion3914/wdyt_3914.html

funny because it's true.

 

[Jedi Knight]

Every night on the news, it's SARS. Every newsbreak, it's something to do with SARS.

I don't have it, and neither does anyone I know. Maybe it's just me, but I'm tired of hearing about this latest plague that kills, oh, nobody.

Unless anyone here knows someone who died from SARS? Please speak up, if you do.

SARS is a biological weapon and an attack on the United States and global capitalism by Asian forces.

JK

 

[richardm]

Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

SARS is a biological weapon and an attack on the United States and global capitalism by Asian forces.

JK

Then how come most of the victims have been in China and Hong Kong? Did somebody drop the flask on the way to the airport?

 

[arcticpenguin]

Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

SARS is a biological weapon and an attack on the United States and global capitalism by Asian forces.
JK

Not at all likely. You would expect a biological weapon to look like a well-known virus or bacteria, possibly modified to a) increase potency or b) evade immunological resistance.

SARS doesn't look like very much like any known human pathogen. This gives the impression that it simply crossed the species barrier into humans very recently.

 

[Bjorn]

Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

SARS is a biological weapon and an attack on the United States and global capitalism by Asian forces.

JK

You're getting older and slower - I've been checking in every morning for three weeks now, anticipating this comment from you!

By the way, you forgot a leftist biological weapon. Not quite up to it these days, are we?

Now, which Asian force can I imagine would kill Chinese and Canadians to attack the United States ....

 

[kourama]

The first two deaths in Toronto from SARS occurred just up the street from my mum's house.

My Dad's GF returned from mainland China a couple of weeks ago.

We're all OK.

 

[Jedi Knight]

Re: Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

Then how come most of the victims have been in China and Hong Kong? Did somebody drop the flask on the way to the airport?

It is just communists sacrificing some of their own to attack global capitalism and send a message that worse is to follow. SARS is a recombitrant harrassment virus, one that can attack the US airline industry and put it out of business, finishing the job Al Qaida tried to do during 9/11. Commies don't do anything without a plan, and China has worked with Al Qaida in developing strategies to attack the United States.

China wants to remain the hegemon in Asia. For the United States to openly debate the disposition of North Korea without China is an insult to them, and Japan's recent rhetoric about militarism again has China pretty pissed off.

SARS is a pretty effective tool to send the west a direct message and it is only going to get much worse as the virus attacks virgin populations in the United States and Europe.

Chinese military planners know America's weaknesses. They know that America can be destroyed using political correctness without even firing a shot. It is the responsibility of government to protect the citizen from plagues and other diseases that can decimate populations in a target nation. China knows that rampant commie leftism where "everyone" can just waltz into America and anyone who objects is "racist" and a "xenophobe" only makes bugs like SARS easier to send against their enemies.

The US spent decades and hundreds of $billions eradicating diseases from the mainland and now with political correctness, US populations are being terrorized with unrestricted access to killer viruses they have no immunity against because it is politically incorrect to make sick people get better before they come into our country now. If we were to hold sick people, it would go against "multiculturalism" and "diversity" and whoever dared to make it happen would be a "racist".

Yellow fever, the West Nile Virus, etc etc etc--all those diseases are caused by sick people coming into the United States and spreading the virus. It was sick people that mosquitos bit and now the entire US mosquito population has the virus to spread to all Americans. Gosh, that is just dandy, isn't it?

If we can't allow dentists to wear gloves when filling teeth with people that have AIDS because it hurts the AIDS' patient's "feelings", how on Earth are we going to stop the infiltration of a recombitrant virus? When people can just cross into the United States everyday by the tens of thousands across our borders unrestricted, the US will never be safe from attack and the "virus" will be the weapon of choice to use against America.

JK

 

[Jedi Knight]

Re: Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

Not at all likely. You would expect a biological weapon to look like a well-known virus or bacteria, possibly modified to a) increase potency or b) evade immunological resistance.

SARS doesn't look like very much like any known human pathogen. This gives the impression that it simply crossed the species barrier into humans very recently.

Not true.

JK

 

[Jedi Knight]

Re: Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

You're getting older and slower - I've been checking in every morning for three weeks now, anticipating this comment from you!

By the way, you forgot a leftist biological weapon. Not quite up to it these days, are we?

Now, which Asian force can I imagine would kill Chinese and Canadians to attack the United States ....

You are wrong. I provide very good information about a variety of topics on this forum. I have been busy doing other things lately and haven't had the chance to chat about SARS.

JK

 

[Mel]

Hasn't the health profession been forecasting for YEARS (if not decades) that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics was going to have a disasterous effect on the population?

Is this what we are seeing now?

 

[LuxFerum]

Jedi Knight is like the bad twin brother of Fox Moulder.

 

[richardm]

Hasn't the health profession been forecasting for YEARS (if not decades) that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics was going to have a disasterous effect on the population?

Is this what we are seeing now?

Don't think so, Mel. This is a virus, and they're not affected by antibiotics one way or another.

 

[Megalodon]

Re: Re: Re: Re: I am sick of SARS

...it is only going to get much worse as the virus attacks virgin populations in the United States and Europe.

Well in that case you should run for the hills.

yada yada...Yellow fever, the West Nile Virus, etc etc etc--all those diseases are caused by sick people coming into the United States and spreading the virus. It was sick people that mosquitos bit and now the entire US mosquito population has the virus to spread to all Americans. Gosh, that is just dandy, isn't it?

Don't you get tired of saying this nonsenses?

If we can't allow dentists to wear gloves when filling teeth

You can't allow? I always demand that a dentist wears gloves while working on my teeth. It's a question of hygiene...

recombitrant virus

I have to agree with you. A recombitrant virus has to be a WMD unleashed by evil commies

When people can just cross into the United States everyday by the tens of thousands across our borders unrestricted, the US will never be safe from attack and the "virus" will be the weapon of choice to use against America.

Specially those evil recombitrant, virgin-killing ones