[onlainari]

SARS. Remember it by any chance?

When was the Iraq War? Began 19th of March 2003, Bush declared victory 1st May, 2003.

When did the SARS outbreak begin? The first case of SARS is believed to be a Chinese businessman who contracted a case of pneumonia with an unidentifiable cause. This was in November 2002. The disease didn't become identified as a new strain of virus and an epidemic until mid March. Officially the delay was due to China's reluctance in reporting the outbreak until it reached it's major cities and across the border.

When did the outbreak end? 5 July 2003. The disease had eased off by the end of April. Press coverage ceased by beginning of May.

What is SARS? A disease caused by a new strain of virus. A coronavirus that was affecting humans in a way that was unseen before. The only explaination for it's creation offered to us by the media was that ecological changes or changes in human behaviour increased opportunities for human exposure to the virus.

Anyone think we've had the wool pulled over our eyes? Was SARS; with a mortality rate of less than 10%, infecting only 8098 people over 4.5 months in an incredibly densly populated area, dieing out in 4.5 months with no cure, and people running around with masks that gave them no protection to the virus; worthy of such intense media coverage? Coincidental timing or not, I think we all got a little too scared. Conviniently.