Registered User
I hope this doesn't violate the ban on politics.
But anyway back here in Singapore we've just gone through the most turbulent 3 months as far as I can remember when a SARS hit our shores.
So far we've had it all, closure of schools, massed quarantines (up to 2000 people at one time) and all sorts of procedures to keep the spread of the disease down.
Happily, Singapore is now officially SARS free.
So anyone had any exprience with SARS?
Verbose Member
Yep. The whole SARS scare has hit Toronto's tourism and recreation industry pretty hard. We've had a second "outbreak" of cases in the last few weeks, and the nurses here are pretty upset that the hospital administrators didn't pay attention to them and their concerns about controlling the "possible" cases during the first outbreak.Originally posted by ghosty
So anyone had any exprience with SARS?
Sheesh. And it's hit us right when summer is around the corner. Summer means big tourist dollars in Toronto.
Oh well. My wife and I and our families are fine and healthy though! *knock on wood*
It's all being realy blown out of proportion, IMHO. At least here in Toronto. I remember a month or so ago a CNN camera crew was sitting in one of the downtown subway stations for something like 6 hours just waiting to get someone wearing a mask on camera. After tens of thousands of folks went through the station, they finally got heir shot when one person walked by with a mask. The crew promptly packed up and left.
Guess what was on CNN the next day? Toronto: SARS crisis!!!
Steve
Drunken DM and the Speak with Dead spell: "No, I'm not the limed-over skeleton of the abbot, and no this special key in my boney fingers does not open the door to the secret treasury! ... Oh crap."
Registered User
hehe...nothing like making the news...Originally posted by Steven A Cook
Guess what was on CNN the next day? Toronto: SARS crisis!!!
Here in Monterey, I think we've had two or three cases brought in from San Fransisco...mainly people who live here returning from trips to Asia. AFAICT, SF hasn't had a major outbreak of SARS to date.
Steve --
Maybe an Elliot Carver-wannabe (forgive the Bond reference) is mad at the Leafs or something, and decided to take it out on the entire city...
Seriously, though, my hopes for a swift end to this thing up there.
Davy Jones
"Frightened? My dear, you are looking at a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe! I was petrified."
-- The Wizard of Oz
Registered User
Oooh, have I ever got some choice words about this fiasco. While I don't have cable television, just the word on the radio and the local papers is enough to send blood pressure skyrocketing. My ladyfriend - who is of Cantonese background - had a one-month babyshower to attend a couple of months back, and the damn thing got cancelled over hysterical concerns that someone might bring it in. And this from people who live a fifty minute drive or more from Scarborough Grace, where the bug first became apparent.
The number of people who've caught this thing in Toronto wouldn't fill a university lecture hall; thirty-one people have died from it - and that's thirty-one too many - but virtually every one of those people were well-advanced in age, and more to the point, had some kind of chronic, serious respiratory condition before they picked up SARS. From what I gather, for the general population (horrible generalization, I know), it's like any other influenza-type bug: you get it, you get sick, you do the fluids-and-rest thing, you get better and get on with your life. Not fun, but not even close to being the horrorshow that the "responsible" media has characterized it as. I haven't met a single person who's had it, knows of anybody who has, or knows of anybody who knows of anybody who has.
That said, I have little doubt that our esteemed provincial gov't. is going to have some tough questions to answer on exactly how they cut medical services to the bone - especially the nursing staff, which has been subject to a war of attrition since '96 - and then expected them to deal with it any more effectively than they did. Just me opinion.
Moderator
Oh, it's not just your opinion, DS. Lots of people feel the same way. One of my modelling buddies is an RN and he has a few choice words for Messrs. Harris and Eves (among others).
Oh, and isn't a fifty minute drive about 30 metres on the Don Valley Parkinglot?
Registered User
I was taking a look at my previous post, and realizing that I'd actually violated the no-politicking rule with my parting shot. While this certainly breaks the letter of the law - perhaps not the spirit; I don't know if Don et al are really all that concerned about Ontarians griping about our eerily life-like premier (damn it, I did it again!) - I think it's probably best to keep the fires from building up to a bonfire level again. I'm hereby dedicating myself to giving the political thing a rest.
That being said: Yes, Owen, you're definitely correct about the Damned Valley Parking lot. I've been lying to myself for a number of years about how I was actually approaching lightspeed and that time was compressing and just seemed slower as I went on my way. Of course, if that were true, I would have left the car finding the world utterly changed and a race of intelligent primates now running the country like a well-oiled machine...using M-16s to round up addle-minded liberal humans ("Just because I support medicare doesn't mean I'm inferior, damn it!") and use us for medical experiments.
By the way, on a completely seperate topic, I wanted to extend my thanks and congratulations on providing a home for the Icon material. I've got Memory Icon on my favorites list and have been checking regularly for updates. Will you be posting here when you're ready to start accepting fan submissions from the Great Unwashed?
Moderator
I'm already taking submissions from the Chosen Few who inhabit the Boards, though I haven't put out a general call yet. Dan Gurden and Volker Maiwald (Evan van Eyck) have already submitted a bunch of stuff. On the other tentacle, I can't promise it will get posted to the site before the middle of the summer - I'm still editing the HTML to fit the new format.
Registered User
No SARS. Got some hantavirus cases, from time to time. Wouldn't be surprised if monkeypox shows up out here, since the outbreak in the middle of the country.
C'est la vie...and it's 100% fatal. Why worry?
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
Registered User
My current work is at a hospital, so a while back we got an e-mail about anti-SARS procedures. You'd think it was Captain Tripps or something. On the other hand, my cousin the ER doctor cheerfully points out that the bug is about twice as lethal as Influinza A from the 1918 pandemic. Of course, Hanta Virus is 100% fatal without treatment if you get it AND has an airborne vector. With no real cure.Did I mention that I get waaaay paranoid around rodent droppings now?
"If it ain't the Devil's music, you ain't doin' it right" -- Chris Thomas King
"C makes for an awfully long lever." - H. Beam Piper
Registered User
Life: 100% fatal. And the leading cause of death in...everyone.
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
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