health_care_workers rubydee are fucked with SARS and all other infectious diseases our hospitals are ill-equiped to detect monitor contain an outbreak are_you_prepared? DOES_THIS_MAKE_YOU_NERVOUS? 030503 ... pobodys nerfect I think the whole frenzy with SARS has been highly overrated. Why? Because: 1)there's no magical cure for it 2)it gave news reporters something else to focus on besides the whole Iraq thing I watched a program about SARS. The number of people who die from it is relatively small--something like 4 percent. I just think the news people are blowing it out of proportion so they can get the higher tv ratings, like they did with the West Nile Virus--making us all worry that we'd die the second we stepped outside because we might get bitten by a "boogyman" mosquito... :P 030503 ... minnesota_chris 4% of America is 14 million people. And it's a version of the common cold. 030505 ... minnesota_chris I think health care workers tend to be a hard edged lot. Nurses are pushy, doctors cold and calculating. 030505 ... rubydee so today, says the WHO, the death rate is closer to 14% than 4 pobodys nerfect, is that high enough to make you avoid the subway, an airplane, anywhere you could be in contact with someone with a runny nose? your clerk at the grocery store, a check-up at your doctor's office...and apparantly, these contacts need not be extended. i think this is just the beginning of the story... you better hope your doctors and nurses are paying attention. and you should too 030508 ... pobodys nerfect rubydee: Those higher numbers are interesting, but I still feel that people should not let fear stop them from living their lives. Maybe just be a little more cautious, like having hand sanitizer with you when you're in public places(something I do all the time anyway). And of course I agree with the travel advisories for invected countries, that's just common sense, though I felt that the Toronto advisory was issued a bit late considering that the number of new cases that were being reported were nowhere near the ones where SARS was REALLY bad(and STILL not under control). As for the doctor check-up comment,lol, I don't have to worry about that one. I hardly ever see him unless I'm really sick,which is probably why he always seems so happy to see me(he treats a town full of hypochondriacs). ;D Anyway, I'm not trying to trivialize what you're saying. I'd just rather not waste time on thinking about how I'm going to die, or other things I have little no control over. I wanna try to think about the happier stuff. That's the kind of person I am. :) 030509 ... rubydee glad to hear you try to be happy... it's not too pleasant to think about mortality... if it's not fun, why do it, right? 030509 what's it to you? who go blather from