To: energyplay who wrote (30470 ) 3/31/2003 1:00:01 PM From: Cogito Ergo Sum Respond to Hi ep, that alleged "worst medical disaster" Well you always get Hyperbole. I think the biggest fear here is a childcare facility or school getting hit hard. Past that, yes it's another flu. I got my first flu shot this year and have been sick on and off all winter. Last year I got the flu and a mother case of sinusitis which is why I got vaccinated this year. Go figure eh! the eight years prior I didn't have a cold or flu symptom that lasted more than a couple of hours and wasn't cured by a good nights sleep. like West Nile Virus in North America Actually we had 10 deaths documented last year and maybe more. Fact is no one ever looked for it before and since the victims are typically aged or very young it could often be confused / written off as something else. ie. St. Louis encephalitis has been around for a long time and is a close cousin of WNV with over 4K US deaths last year. But yeah, smoking, alcohol and cars kill a lot more folks every year. The issue there is typically human though. We think we have some control over the situation. Further, virtually all of the deaths have been in countries with horrendous health care, primarily mainland China. In the U.S., 40 people have been hospitalized with SARS. Deaths? Zero. Well we got 4 deaths and contrary to the political BS etc our health care system isn't deplorable. Meanwhile, a disease that emerged eons ago called malaria kills up to 2.7 million people yearly. Another, tuberculosis, kills perhaps three million more. Both afflict Americans, albeit at very low rates. Again not an unknown and once people look at the percentages, well it's not much an issue.Lets's Gas
