Due to my recent injury, I have to go to the clinic every day for physical therapy. The first few times I went, late last week, it was business as usual at the modern, Western-style facility. Then, as of Tuesday, they started the policy of mandatory surgical masks, which they hand to you as you walk in (first you have to wash your hands with some antibacterial lotion). Does this indicate there is less fear or more fear?

My doctor there is an urbane Chinese woman who has lived much of her life abroad, and for the first few days of my visits she was telling me how she felt the reaction to SARS was overblown and that the problem was being controlled. When I told her on Wednesday about the alarming news of a government cover-up in Beijing she expressed deep skepticism.

By yesterday afternoon, this skepticism had turned to fear. One of the clinic’s star doctors, an American, decided to take immediate leave and departed from Beijing back to America with his wife and kids, she told me, because he fears no Beijing hospital can be fully safe. She told me that she heard from a colleague of hers at a nearby hospital that their staff is quite concerned about a new SARS case there — it is not one of the hospitals specifically designated to deal with SARS, and she is afraid they may not be able to prevent spread.

While I cannot say for a fact that these two bits of anecdotal evidence are true, I do know my doctor is a mature person, quite well known in the city, and I could see something really turned her around.

At the moment, my logic tells me Beijing is generally safe, but I would not want to be hanging around the city’s hospitals, nor would I want to sit in a big group communally eating out of a single big bowl, which is quite the norm here. It’s definitely a time to be careful, and to ignore just about everything the central government has to say about the subject.

Thanks to BWG in HK.

CCTV is laying it on with a steam shovel. America has won the war but at a very heavy price. Iraqis are afraid they may suffer more than they did under Saddam if America chooses to “colonize” the country and take away their land. We must leave matters in the hands of the UN. There must be an international solution to administer change in Iraq. They are interviewing one anguished-looking Iraqi after another, while the translator’s voice-over, like a broken record, keeps saying basically the same thing — we are all terrified of American rule and wish the United Nations would step in now and take over. Of course, they are all speaking Arabic and could be telling the reporter they need to pick up their dry cleaning later today. (Some are obviously poor peasants, and I have to wonder, with respect, how they all know so much about the machinations of the United Nations.)

Needless to say, SARS is a dead story according to CCTV — only 22 cases in Beijing and all on the road to recovery. As the announcer reads the statistics, I can see she wants to get through the story as quickly as possible. Her face can’t hide that she knows she is lying. That’s one of the most interesting aspects of the Beijing media — all the reporters know they are lying, and they hate to do it. This is not why they chose to be journalists. But there is no choice, of course, and many of them are quite vocal (in private conversation) about their loathing of the censors who turn their stories either into syrupy “feel-good” mush or blatant and unconscionable lies.

I often skip the columns of Bob Herbert because they all tend to sound the same. Today however his column follows the money trail from Washington to Iraq and it’s pretty interesting. Not at all surprising, is it?

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan is crowing about our victory (with some justification; after all, he did call it right) and dishing out Von Hoffman awards at record levels. The only thing that’s disconcerting is that he sounds utterly crazed — you know, like a whirling dervish, breathless and giddy. Of all the super-bloggers, he has the unique distinction of being the most obsessed, almost to the point of hysteria.

The NY Times has an excellent follow-up interview with the Beijing doctor who went on record about the government’s attempted cover-up of SARS so as not to spoil their fun at the Party Congress:

In China, health statistics are often regarded as state secrets, particularly if they are negative. Chinese leaders are particularly reluctant to release bad news occurring in Beijing, the capital.

In fact, Dr. Jiang said that the first case of SARS in Beijing occurred in March, during the annual meeting of Parliament, the National People’s Congress. Ten doctors and nurses at the Army’s No. 302 hospital were infected after contact with that patient.

Hospital leaders in Beijing were called to the ministry of health for a meeting. But instead of instructing them to pass on a public health warning, Dr. Jiang said, the ministry told the doctors that they were “forbidden to publicize” that SARS had arrived in Beijing “in order to ensure stability” as Parliament convened.

This is old news. What people need to get is why the governmment harbors such fears, why they are so terrified of any signs of “disharmony” or “instability.” This is literally the key to understanding what makes China the country it is today. The problem is, anyone who really does undertands this is automatically an enemy of the state.

Sorry if I got a little carried away with SARS over the past 24 hours, but it’s one of the stories (one of many stories) I believe people should know. I am writing a backgrounder on AIDS in China right now, and the SARS scandal pales in comparison. I will post it once I’m done.

Anyway, if I remember, there’s a war being fought over in the Middle East. It’s obvious, even watching Chinese television, who’s won and who’s lost. Needless to say, there’s been none of the joyous welcoming of the US troops shown on CCTV. Everything is measured, cautious, careful to emphasize the problems America now faces, as opposed to emphasizing the hands-down victory and confirmation of the claim (now a fact) that ousting Saddam was indeed the humanitarian thing to do. But how could they now acknowledge this? For the past month all that CCTV has been about was how inhumane and murderous the invasion would be.

Interesting case in point as to how they do things here: Yesterday CNN apparently showed the statue of Saddam being torn down and the jubilation of the Iraqis doing the tearing. (I don’t get CNN, but my Western colleague was telling me about it.) I saw the CCTV version, and their approach to the same story is telling. Instead of showing a long shot of the people mobbed around the scene, they focused only from the foot of the statue up — so we only saw a couple of men wrapping the ropes around the statue, and no crowd on the ground below. The announcer said that as the statue toppled “a few people cheered.” My colleague tells me that is such an understatement that it’s really a lie. He told me the whole mob was thrilled and cheering. CCTV never showed them.

Right now, all we are hearing is Chinese officials saying that it’s time to let the UN step in and handle things. Again, I call this “quacking” and the only thing that’s not funny about it is that lots and lots of Chinese people don’t realize it’s quacking. And I know — I will put money on it — that for the next few weeks all we will hear is how “experts say” the solution should be worked out within the framework of international agencies like the UN, quack, quack, quack. Those experts know everything, just as they knew how to handle SARS.

Then again, maybe the Chinese do know more about liberating countries than we do. After all, they liberated Tibet, though, come to think of it, they didn’t call for the UN to step in and handle that liberation, now did they? And anyone who asked, “Liberated Tibet from who? Liberated Tibet from what? is rotting away in a Chinese jail, er, re-education center.

According to daypop, Paul Krugman’s latest column has made it to the Top 40 list of most cited articles on the Web. And with good reason. Be sure to read it.

Another reader wrote, in response to a post on the Time article:

I suspect the story only uncovers the tip of an iceberg.

Anyway, I don’t trust the statistics in the media. I am also skeptical of the evidence that the WHO team are seeing. I know it must be very frustrating. And I can only wish you luck and be able to get out soon….

This hasn’t been verified (as though verification by the government makes something true; remember, there are no gays living in China and no VD) and I don’t know if it is the tip of an iceberg. My common sense tells me that if it were still a raging epidemic, not even the Chinese Central Government would have the balls to get on TV and state that the danger is over, especially with the WHO investigators breathing down their necks. But then, they always seem to surprise me. I am writing a backgrounder on AIDS in China, and what I have learned convinces me that the government here is capable of just about anything, as long as they believe it will help preserve their evil grip on power….

I only wish all of you could be here in Beijing to see to what extent life has become “all SARS all the time,” and then watch our TV news and its fantasyland “reporting.” You would see in a heartbeat just how bizarre a place China really is.

One reader pointed me to an article translated from the Nanfang Daily — you can read it in Chinese here — that underscores my point about the irresponsible and self-congratulatory tone of our blessed media:

Guangdong Province Governor Huang Huahua said that Guangdong is confident that it has won the battle against SARS. Huang welcomed and thanked the WHO officers and experts who had come to Guangdong. Huang said that once the SARS epidemic occurred, the Guangdong Provincial Committee and Provincial Government with the support and help of the CPC Central Committe, the State Council and the concerned central government departments, made the appropriate response and decisions to lead and unite the people of the entire province to take effective measures that achieved clear results in just a short time. [Peking Duck: read this to mean they stifled dialogue and suppressed information, hiding their heads in the sand and allowing the situation to worsen in every way until the harsh glare of the world spotlight forced them to take action.] As of April 5, 82.2% of the cumulative number of reported SARS patients had been cured and left the hospital.

Dr. Robert Frederic Bromia, the leader of the WHO expert group thanked Huang Huahua for the meeting and for the fine support the WHO enjoyed during its trip to Guangdong. Bromia said that the Guangdong experts have done great work in treating people with SARS and in preventing the further spread of the epidemic and their achievements are of great help to WHO. Bromia said that SARS is already a global problem and it isn’t really important where it came from. What is important is finding the cause of SARS and finding ways to prevent it. Bromia said that the results of the WHO survey and data collected would be reported to WHO headquarters and hoped that the designation of Guangdong Province as an epidemic area would be able to be removed soon. After the meeting, Governor Huang invited the WHO experts for a night cruise on the Pearl River.

I hope they enjoyed their cruise. The epidemic may well be in decline. The crime, however, is the way the government at all levels (local, provincial, central) supressed information and stymied investigation all along the way. And everyone knows it.

The same writer provided me a summary of another article in Chinese (date unclear), and here’s a generous chunk:

All Too Typical: A Review of China’s Handling of Atypical Pnumonia (SARS)

Finally Guangdong Province reported the SARS numbers for February. As of February 28, the number of SARS cases increased to 792, an increase of 250% while 31 people had died, an increase of six times. Is this what the meant when they said “the epidemic is basically under control?”

Don’t miss this story, even though it’s ancient history in Internet time. It holds a mirror up to the duplicity of the central government, and what it shows is highly unflattering. This SARS story, which only a few days ago I thought was a non-story, has the potential to rock this country in ways you wouldn’t imagine.

The new regime was supposed to be ever so sensitive to “the needs of the people.” So what is its first accomplishment? It gives its citizens the finger, concealing a deadly health threat to make their meaningless People’s Congress look pretty. For a government so obsessed with “stability” and “harmony,” this is highly reckless behavior, the stuff of which general unrest is made. Now, SARS is the only thing people are talking about. This is poised to spiral totally out of control, especially if the government keeps up the CCTV bullshit (“There’s never been a nicer time to visit Guandong!”) while the people become increasingly aware that their “leaders” would rather see them dead than be forced to tell the truth.

NEWSFLASH: Forget about everything I wrote above. I just heard on TV (and I am serious) that “thanks to the efforts of the central government SARS is now under control and no longer a risk to the general public.” What would we do without the central government?