From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Thu Mar 27 2003 - 12:57:37 MST
> (Robert J. Bradbury <bradbury@aeiveos.com>):
>
> The medical opinion is mixed at this point since SARS may require
> two viruses, a paramyxovirus and a coronavirus. But it isn't too
> soon for extropes to begin thinking about how they might deal with
> this. Unlike the war in Iraq -- this is a danger that can end up
> on your doorstep.
Is it really a risk worth worrying about at all? Why is it that
so many people are prone to fear statistically insignificant risks
while ignoring or downplaying serious ones?
I can think of lots of examples:
Radiation from xrays, power lines, nuclear plants: absolutely not
worth worrying about. Radiation from /the sun/: worth worrying about.
Neurological damage from cell phones: utterly insignificant. The
real risk: crashing your car while on the cell phone. Pesticides and
chemical fertilizers on your fruits and vegetables: not a realistic
problem. A realistic problem: the pizza and nachos you ate instead
of the fruits and vegetables.
So how does SARS fit on that scale compared to genuine risks like
getting Hepatitis from a tattoo, or TB from an undocumented busboy,
or meningococcus from your college rommmate? Hell, thousands of
people die every year from the flu. What's the death toll for SARS
so far? Maybe 60?
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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