Saturday, April 19, 2003

SARS and PeeCee

As Chinese (and China-disguised) flu (which should be called Urbani’s Syndrome after its brave discoverer, now dead from the disease) loomed in early April, the West did not even begin to discuss closing its borders. Such containment can only work in the earliest phase of an infectious disease, but peecee considerations forbade discussion. The disease was likely to kill one in five of its victims – for there would clearly not be enough hospital respirators for all sufferers once the numbers affected began to mount. A particular anxiety was that there would be a mass exodus from southern China to relatives in Canada and the USA – immediately, infecting large communities because of high-density living and unhygienic habits of eating from the same dish. {On 7 April, Australia took powers to isolate suspected victims and to seal its borders; but PeeCee reigned supreme in Downing Street and the White House.}

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