<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Shareholder:
Given our experience and the reality here in Toronto, I can only sympathize with publc health officials in Hong Kong and Singapore -- and those two cities -- that have been dealing with the fallout from the mainland's callous dealings with this outbreak. None of our cities were affected by SARS in the way the media overplayed their stories. It was not a plague rampaging through the streets affecting everyone in these cities. Outbreaks were contained and appropriate measures taken to control the outbreak. While serious, SARS was far less a pandemic than the annual outbreak of norm flu strains.
Three city economies have been devastated, particularly their tourist industries, plus three major world airlines brought down, one seriously.
Yes, the media have totally distorted the story, which had the Iraqi liberation not gone so quickly and relatively uneventfully, SARS would hardly have made it to the front page and into the first 5-minutes in newscasts.
It is too bad the media can never be brought to task for their incompetence and irresponsibility. If governments attempt this, they are called censors and suspected for political motives. There is no accountability when it comes to the media today, and the levels even the blue chip media have now sunk to are so low, we all live in peril from similar events.
WHO shares some degree of blame, having recently been given the powers to declare health emergencies. In much the same way UN bodies have distorted Human Rights for political objectives, we have seen the same games from Geneva.
But the truly culpable party that should be sued and brought to task is the corrupt regime in Beijing that tried to cover up the original outbreak and refused the WHO access to the original cell of SARS.
Rant over.
BTW I have two trips to HKG booked for the fall, and likely one to SIN. As a Torontonian, I guess I like to live on the edge. I also eat Alberta beef!
[This message has been edited by Shareholder (edited 07-25-2003).]</font>
Well said. The media was completely irresponsible with its coverage of the SARS "epidemic." To put it simply, they sensationalized it. My favorite part of the coverage was how they couldn't just say SARS, they had to say, "the deadly SARS virus" or the "SARS epidemic that is sweeping the world."