Is SARS an issue where you live?
 

I got a brief overview of SARs last night in the TFP chat room (great place, btw), and also heard from a few members that had SARs as concern in their lives.

I live in PA, and it isn't really a big deal here. However, from what I have gathered so far, it seems to be a bigger problem in Canada.

Given your location, do you have any SARs concerns, or aren't you worried?

During a baseball game last week they showed some fans with medical masks on top of their hats, and that was a rather odd site. Are these masks becoming present in your cities and places of large public gatherings?

I'm about 50 minutes from Toronto....and i live above a medical centre. I would definitely say i'm nervous about it- especially since the number of deaths is rising, not falling.

I'm sure there are many TFP members actually from Toronto, however.
So i'll just shut up, and hope for the best for them.

I'm at a school not that far from Canada... maybe 45 minutes. I wasn't really worried, since I'm in the school bubble and don't really get all that much news from the outside world. Then the other day, we got a campus-wide email that listed a few cities up in Canada and said to find out if anyone we know had been to those cities, and if so watch for signs of the disease, which they listed. Don't know of anyone who the actually think has it, but its kinda scary. I hear lots of rumors, and few facts.

Not at all a problem here in the Netherlands. And frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. 95% survive the disease, and only the weak people die. People also die from the common cold, or any other disease... and that 5% mortality rate isn't that bad.

I live in downtown Toronto and I have to say that the whole SARS thing seems rather blow out of proportion.

From what I can see it is largely contained in hospitals and health care centres and all but one can be traced back to the original case.

I travel on public transit, go to work, shop, go see movies, etc. and don't give it another thought. From here it seems that news organizations are just jumping on the story and (as usual) making a mountain out of a mole hill (gotta keep the eyeballs entertained after all).

The reality here is much different.

I'm in Canada and I'm not worried about it. The sad thing is most people listen to rumors and such rather than getting themselves well informed. To ignore it is stupid but to get freaked out about it is equally stupid. I worry about crossing the street more than SARS.

It's not a big problem, but since the early stages of SARS are similar to flu-like symptoms, anyone who feels sick has to second-guess exactly what it is.

I certainly hope that they can figure this out before anyone else dies.

It's not a problem yet...but one of my nieghbors has been having similar symptoms...we're all waiting for the results.

It hasn't been a problem in my town as far as I know, but there were 2 cases in the southern area of my state. (That'd be Illinois, by the way.) I'm not freaking out about it.

Live in Ottawa(about a 4 hour drive to Toronto) and the medical community is keeping everything under control.I'm more worried that Philadelphia will knock our team out of the NHL playoffs.

There have a been a few cases in Ohio, but there doesn't seem to be much hysteria over them. Most of the news is still focused on Hong Kong and Toronto.

The closest to me is a Syracuse University student who just got recently. I live about 45 miles east of there.

Yup, me too, not scared at all. In a city of 2.5 million, the percentage that has it are very small. You just take precautions like washing your hands more. That's it.

Come to Toronto, help us out, and enjoy the most ethnically diverse city in the world.

http://yueli.yorku.ca/images/2001/Toronto.jpg

I love in Toronto area too and I think the media and WHO has blown SARS waaaaaay out of proportion. They make it sound like people are dropping dead in the streets.

To give you and idea of the scale of it - more people have died in car accidents and more people have died of the FLU than have died of SARS.

The WHO is going to destroy Toronto's economy with their unbased warnings.

People die from influenza, pneumonia and west nile virus in great numbers every year. SARS is just another one of many illnesses that can kill.

It should be noted that of those that have died they are mostly the very old or very sick. Their immune systems were already run down.

The worst thing that can be said about SARS at this time is that it is extremely contagious. But so is the common cold.

I think maybe one person in Colorado has it and I'm sure it not really SARS... We just felt left out.

In Summit County in Ohio it hasn't been much of an issue I don't think. But if it ever becomes one, I'm in big trouble. I work in a place with about a hundred people in one large room at the same time, where each one of them may expect to switch computers about 5-6 times a night. Every once in a while, we'll get a disease epidemic, like the flu or whatever, that will sweep through the place.

People have been swabbing down their keyboards with little moist towelette things. I am just careful about how I use my hands after I touch the keyboard (don't touch my eyes, ears, nose, etc.) and wash my hands every break (once an hour). I get more diseases from my brothers than I get from the office.

Actually, SARS doesn't seem to exhibit a strong preference amongst people of differing immunity systems. While people of frail constitutions are more likely to die from SARS- as with any other illness- SARS has killed youth who are otherwise brimming with good health. It may of course be argued that these hapless youth had immunity deficiencies that we aren't aware of; nonetheless, the current evidence suggests that susceptibility to SAR's more fatal effects is genetic, and quite distinct from the same genetic predilections that affect the immune system.

Not a big deal here in Finland. No confirmed cases. The global situation is on the news though frequently.

It's not an issue around where I live, but I'm sure it will be in time.

I'm in alberta, something like 12 cases or 16... 7 in Calgary. I'm not scared yet.

I find people are generally cautious in Canada's capital, but no one is panicing in the streets yet.

In Sydney, New laws allow police to quarantine anyone with the 'flu for fear of carrying SARS (which really sucks because im coming down with a cold...)

I think one worry in Australia is that, since the war "ended", our right wing government has been cooking up a whole new batch of "asylum seeker" scares for the rednecks to get hysterical about.

Not only are malnourished 80 year old boat people supposedly all terrorists, they're now all diseased terrorists.

*sigh*, and so it goes...

Man--here in the Rio Grande valley that would just be an inconvience.

being just 5 miles from Mexico, it seems we have every air born
alergie and mosqutio born desease in the world......

we just wash our hands a lot (every one shakes hands down here as a friendly jesture)....and use a lot of waterless hand
disenfectent.

fuck no. i don't think it should be an issue anywhere. it's being blown out of proportion.

It isn't a scare in our part of the world but I can sure see how it would cause some real concern if you lived in an area that had cases of it. Scairy when crap like that gets started.

People are fucked where I live. Toronto, Canada

Ladies giving birth have to leave the hospital 24 hours after the birth and if the child needs to stay they send them to sticksville out in the country! Lotsa businesses are suffering and you can be quarantined for up to 10 days if you have symptoms or contact with someone who has it.

I don't know what to think about it.

I have to agree with mst of the posters that live in Toronto. The media, WHO, and CDC have blown the story out of porportion. The concern I feel is more of an afterthought. This does not make me avoid The Paramount movie theaters or the Eaton's Centre or any public area.

I think I'll paraphrase Jeremy Roenick (yes, he's a Flyer and it pains me, a Leafs fan, to acknowledge him) by saying that I'll just avoid the doctors right know because all they bring is bad news.

SARS=Severe Asian Racism Syndrome

Most women leave the hospital 24 hours after giving birth these days, SARS or not...

really? it's more diverse than NYC? I've only been there once and it was for less than 3 hours and I was tired from walking from the waterfall.

NYC Chinatown is like a ghost town... first the economy...then 9/11.. then the economy again... then SARS...

Yeah, in Toronto, over 100 languages and dialects are spoken.

As for being tired from walking from the waterfall, did you mean Niagara Falls, since the closest thing Toronto has to a waterfall is the Wonder Mountain at Paramunt Canada's Wonderland.

It's odd that the WHO has 'quarantined' Toronto, but no other city, including Bejing.

What's up with that?

Here in Oz, we got out country tight as a fucken drum. I don't think its gonna come here. I could be wrong

I'm from Toronto also, Not worried about it though...I was a little while ago, But now it's just another new sickness.

When it first hit here, There was this huge panic....Now it seems everybody has just accepted it.

rant
I live in Markham which is about smack dab in the middle of all this fuss. Two hospitals within 15 minutes of me are closed because of this underpowered disease with a high energy PR firm. People of asian background are the majority in Markham, and some make monthly trips back to Hong Kong to visit relatives or do business. Still, only some 20 people have died in Toronto. This is all horribly overrated. My dad who works for an American telecommunications company was not allowed to make a routine business trip down to Atlanta because the company thought he would infect the American headquarters.
A Canadian womens soccer team was not allowed to travel to the states for a tournament meant to showcase the northerners talent, because of the threat of SARS. This tournament was designed so that the players could get scholarships to American universities.
People in Toronto have accepted the fact that this little sickness is running around, and they have realized that the death rate is miniscule, but the rest of the world hasn't. Caution is acceptable, but the WHO is killing Toronto's travel sector by singling it out with its warnings.
/rant

Have friends from Hong Kong. They probably won't be going back home anytime soon... it sucks...

My friend claims to have SARS

In Boston I'm not aware of any cases in the city (or more than one or two.) Only change thus far is that I'm more inclined to give someone shiat on the train if they sneeze and opt to share their mist with their fellow travellers (you know, the ones who don't cover their mouths or make any effort to make a dent in the amount of airborne globules of spit.)