Pretty Scary

[Swass]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/893950.asp?0cv=CB20



This is not the way you want to end a trip.

 

[Flic1]

"Last week, evidence surfaced that SARS can be caught on airplanes. Hong Kong authorities said several tourists on a China Air flight caught the disease after flying with another SARS-infected passenger. "

Great, another excuse for people not to fly......

 

[ultrarunner]

Just heard that AA is grounded in Cali. Flt from Tokyo. SARS symp. psngers. Is the plane down there still quarantined?

 

[General Lee]

I think it is still on the tarmac--and 125 Pax and crew are still inside. I believe 2 out of the 4 pax taken off have been cleared. What great publicity for AA--huh? Ouch, again.

Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Flywrite]

I guess the media are realizing that they have analyzed the war into the ground, so now they need something new to analyze.

When you consider that 64 deaths out of 1,800 cases is a mortality rate of around 3.5%, and that in a typical flu season 7-9% of ALL deaths are attributed to flu or flu-related pneumonia this thing really isnt as big a deal as they make out.

The First World War ended in large part because all the troops were down with flu during the 1918 epedemic that quickly killed over 20 million people. Once again, when you look at those numbers this thing just doesnt seem that bad.

It's basically a new strain of the common cold which can lead to fatal pneumonia in a small percentage of those infected. When you consider that the really scary diseases like hantavirus and ebola have mortality rates of 50 and 90% respectively, this bug just doesnt seem to warrant the global panic it seems to be causing.

Here in NC we had two cases reported the day before the war started. We havent heard about them since then until today when the paper briefly mentioned that they had both recovered and gone home.

Any emerging disease can be a cause for concern, but lets not let the media blow this out of proportion.