From: Samantha (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon May 12 2003 - 23:45:11 MDT
On Monday 12 May 2003 03:22 pm, you wrote:
> I don't know why people are so afraid of admitting that we don't
> know everything. SARS is new. We don't know if it will spread or
> die out.
Well, evidence to date sugest 10-15% fatality, fairly long lived
outside the body, prone to mutate fairly easily and not that
difficult to contract from an infected person. That is enough to
justify some worry and a great deal of caution where the disease is
present.
> We don't know if it will be easily cured or immune to all
> medicines.
Yes, we know we don't have a cure yet.
> All these predictions on both extremes are meaningless.
I don't consider them "predictions", simply possibilities.
> They are just guesses made without evidence.
No, not totally whtout evidence.
> Those who say it
> will become an unstoppable epidemic that will cripple the planet
> may be right, but there is no evidence for that.
It is already crippling regions, rightly or wrongly. I actually tend
more to great caution on this one. If it gets loose I don't consider
it at all far-fetched that it could kill millions. I would rather
err on the side of caution. Besides, I think it is good exercise
for humanity to wake up to these kinds of danger and act in a
coordinate manner to deal with them.
Of course, while this is going on, we still let hundreds of millions
die of AIDS in Africa, despite presidential rhetoric. Whole
countries are thoroughly decimated. This is one we, humantity at
large, let get far more out of control than need be. We don't have a
cure for that either. But we do have drug regiments that allow
living relatively symptom free.
- samantha
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