Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - U.S. Authorities Consider Travel Restrictions to SARS Affected Areas

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/04/21/sars.us/index.html

Just the thought of this makes me furious. it is one thing for the media to freak-out about this, but for health authorities to join the hysteria is just inexcusable. More and more, I fear we Americans are becoming a country of wimps.

I say screw 'em. If they put a ban in effect, I'll go just out of spite.

Of course, there is no travel reccomendation for Canada, furhter proof that there a serious racial overtones to this "crisis."

Yes - someone needs to get this Gerberding woman under control - she is doing far more harm than good at the moment. But she obviously likes the sound of her own voice because she is cropping up everywhere in the media.

There is no doubt, for example that SARS is under control in Hong Kong. Viruses that are not under control tend to spread exponentially. SARS in HK is increasing less than linearly and the number of patients in hospital is now on a downwards trend.

I agree that they are overly paranoid and are over reacting.

However, in reading the article it was Dr. Donald Low, from Toronto who was talking about the travel ban to Asia not Gerberding. As he is a Doctor in Toronto it is highly unlikely that he would recommend a travel ban for Canada. Also the secondary headline reads <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">U.S. travel restrictions to Canada considered</font>

Not to defend Gerberding but the CDC has been trying to address the fear that Asians may be descriminated against because of SARS. http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/hot/sars/news/apr1003sars.html



[This message has been edited by tcjack (edited 04-22-2003).]

We've seen media quoting the cumulative total of Sars patients, like in the CNN story linked above.

Is it that relevant? I do see the value as historical data. But isn't it more important for us to know how many patients there are currently? I mean the figure excluding those discharged or cured from the cumulative total.

It's official! WHO (and the US) has advised a ban on non-essential travel to some Chinese provinces, Beijing (Peking) and Toronto for three (3) weeks as of 04/23/2003. The main reason for the advisement is not necessarily the SARS disease, but the hospital innundation for any foriegner who gets sick, whether related or non-related and would have no where to go. This was the reason the WHO placed the restriction on Hong Kong and Singapore, because of over-booked hospital capacity.

As for Toronto, I'm totally glad for the restriction. That government and health care system is full of morons, idiots, and lifers beyond the realm of "left-winged" politics, which causes all the trouble (can you imagine the Toronto/Ontario government posting a warning concerning a train system, just because a possible case boarded the train? Amazingly stupid because Toronto and it's neighboring size of Canadian space is not a city-state like Singapore which can do that).

I'm hoping the Hong Kong hospital situation slows down.....I believe it will. I'm waiting for a report that will issue 0 cases one day. That will be good! Also, I think the Hong Kong government should do a huge city sweep on the sewage system, fixing all the pipes with no leaks and a treatment, flushing out the system. It's a good, costly idea, but it may create a HUGE economic profit in the long term for my favourite area. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

SHADO

[This message has been edited by SHADO (edited 04-23-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PresRDC:
Of course, there is no travel reccomendation for Canada, furhter proof that there a serious racial overtones to this "crisis." </font>

Heh, you must feel pretty silly now, being so quick to cry racism. So much for the proof eh? Oh well, hysteria is in the air it seems. We all need to calm down a little I think.

SHADO,

just to correct you, the WHO did not advise against travel to Singapore. Only Beijing, Shanxi, Toronto, Hongkong and Guangdong Province are on the list of places to avoid.

The hospital system here is hardly "overwhelmed" with SARS patients. I'm pleased to inform you that 110 people have been discharged and only 50+ people remain in hospital. The number of new cases a day hovers between 1 and 5 and can be traced to the original infections in a particular hospital 4 weeks ago. 90% of all cases here were contracted in hospitals while the remaining 10% were close contacts of SARS patients. Therefore, it is not spreading in the general community.

For once, I'm glad to be living in the world's premier nanny state because in times like this, a paternalistic no-nonsense approach is indeed necessary, which explains why Singapore is so successful in this fight against SARS.

pity hkg ain't like that (i meant with the SARS).

Yes, I do not state that Singapore is under a WHO advisory, but instead compared Singapore's success to Toronto's failure.

I just accessed the WHO's website and noticed that it is this rogue organization (the WHO) that is making the recommendations for "common cold" screening at airports. This has got to be stopped very soon, because this bogus WHO recommendation is making governments screen for common colds and that cannot happen. It will cripple society as we know it. Nations' economies and very upset governments are going to overrule the WHO's small 15 minutes of political clout, shortly. It has already started in Toronto and The United States' CDC has already overruled the WHO on travel to Toronto for Americans.

SARS will not be "cured" if the WHO is being allowed to make decisions, in which countries have to abide by them. The WHO is not an elected branch of government, nor do they do much hands-on research in the countries they label as advisory.

I think the WHO should focus on the panic they caused in China and actually do some helping. Maybe they can administer a shot for once.

In the end, the WHO will use their publicity to promote more "epidemics" beyond SARS until the world has simply had enough of it. Then we can all travel again with information on how to stay healthy, rather than forced medical checks from anything from a cough to a hernia.

SHADO

[This message has been edited by SHADO (edited 04-24-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by docpepz:
SHADO,

just to correct you, the WHO did not advise against travel to Singapore. Only Beijing, Shanxi!2C Toronto, Hongkong and Guangdong Province are on the list of places to avoid.
</font>The CDC (US Center for Disease Control) does advise against travel to SIN and has it in exactly the same status as HKG (by contrast Toronto is on a lower status).
Interesting politics at work: the WHO has SIN at a lower risk level than the CDC, while the CDC has Toronto at a lower risk level than the WHO (both SIN and Toronto have significant incidence of SARS infections and related deaths, so naively both should be in the same category -- I understand the science is more complex than that, not the least because the transmission modes have not quite worked as expected which makes gauging the infection risk erratic).