SARS may be more insidious than any of us had imagined, according to a new article in the NYT. It starts with an ominous lead: “Dismaying developments in three nations yesterday underscored the capriciousness of SARS, the respiratory virus that had seemed to be coming under control in many countries.”
Reading the article, I realized just how little we know about this pathogen, and that it may hold many surprises in store for us in the future.
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By Mark Anthony Jones
Let me turn my attention now to point (c) of my argument. The handling of SARS was a very political issue. The country of origin (China) had the lowest death rate of any country with a large number of cases, and yet Hong Kong which has better medical care than China had three times the death rate.
I will agree with both Richard and Pete that the Chinese authorities, by initially keeping quiet, fearful that public anxiety would scare away business investors and tourists, can be attributed to some of the anxiety that occurred here on the mainland, which I witnessed first hand.
April 25, 2005 @ 4:18 am | Comment