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Biotech / Medical : SARS and Avian Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biomaven who wrote (124)	4/16/2003 7:37:36 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4232

Thanks Peter, Re: SARSCAM You've confirmed my opinion about Horowitz's viewpoint. I always like to look at both sides, but sometimes crazy theories prove to be just that. <g> **** OT: Smallpox -- hysteria or prudence? I've never quite understood why we have such a slow simmering hysteria surrounding smallpox. Smallpox was eradicated in the 1970's, and exists only in two government laboratories, AFAIK. (Cf. Laurie Garrett's "Betrayal of Trust".) I've heard the rumors that the Russian stocks have been compromised. Maybe yes, maybe no. I can't imagine the Russian government seeing any advantage whatsoever in letting terrorists, such as the Chechans, get hold of the stocks. However, I can see friends of the Bush Administration at Bioport, in particular, attempting to get rich off creating a hysteria. Comments? All the best, Ray

To: Biomaven who wrote (124)	4/16/2003 10:54:34 PM
From: LTK007	Respond to of 4232

I thought reading about SARS right from the center of problem via the local press would be of human interest. Max <<Hong Kong can beat this virus - just watch us 04/17/2003 South China Morning Post Page 12 (c) Copyright 2003 South China Morning Post Publishers. All Rights Reserved. The view down the tunnel of Sars is a bleak one indeed. Hong Kong people find themselves living in communities beset by fear and anxiety as the toll of infection and death rises. Travel suddenly is complicated and business is slowing, placing an extra burden on a wounded economy. A confused, and worrying, situation on the mainland further blurs the picture. A return to normal life seems far off, beyond the wish that something - although we don't know what - will stop the spread as quickly as it started. Yet as the days pass, there are glimmers of realistic hope. Clearly the realisation is growing that the virus is going to pose a threat in some form for a long time. With it comes the sense that somehow Hong Kong people have to find the will from within to get through the crisis, both individually and as a community. If, through the fog of fear, we look for inspiration, we find there is no shortage. Consider the quiet heroism of the doctors and nurses toiling to ease the suffering of victims despite the risk of infection. They work on even though among those they care for, and those who have died, are their colleagues and friends. They are as brave as any soldiers in battle, truly living up to the highest motives of their calling. Then there are orderlies, cooks and cleaners who turn up each day to keep the hospitals functioning, undoubtedly worrying every time they step into the lift yet still performing their duties. In a broader fashion, too, there are tens of thousands of other people working day and night to keep Hong Kong ticking over in these dark hours, the workers scrubbing public areas and offices and the people whose jobs keep them in busy public areas. Quietly, many of them have already realised what we must all grasp now - life must go on. This emerging sense of civic responsibility is finding a wider expression. Government hygiene efforts will be buttressed by Operation Unite, a business-led initiative to mobilise community clean-up campaigns. The Hong Kong Jockey Club will match public donations. Then there are the Fear Busters, a public relations drive led by Christine Loh Kung-wai to raise public awareness and co-operation. At other times, such actions may attract their share of cynics. But in the middle of the Sars crisis, there can be none of it. All such moves deserve support. They help convert the negative of fear into the positive of action. These efforts are necessary and valuable but they can form only part of the solution. Hong Kong people at all levels need to work to keep the virus at bay by constantly maintaining personal hygiene and keeping their surroundings clean. Psychologists have long noted that a good spring cleaning can do wonders for people's well-being. Just now, it will help keep them healthy, too. Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa captured the civic-minded mood as he showed some much-needed leadership last night. He spoke realistically of the likelihood that control of the outbreak and the disease itself could only be a gradual process. "We have to accept that it (the virus) will be with us for some time," Mr Tung said. "We have to learn to live with it." This emphasis on personal and collective responsibility and effort carries our best hope of tackling the crisis and rebounding from it. The fight will come down to a display of spirit and backbone - qualities long associated with Hong Kong and its people. We must all show that they remain. International eyes are on the city. The courage and diligence it displays now can only help any recovery, shaking it out of the creeping malaise that was dogging it long before Sars emerged. Hong Kong's history is laced with tales of crisis that have been converted to opportunity. As perplexing as it may now seem, Sars must be seen in that light.>>