Job Discussion Forums

[hubei_canuk]

Rumours are something to pay attention to in a Totalitarian State.
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In the absence of any democratic and free inspection of all "facts" issued by the current dictatorship paying attention to "rumours" may just save one's life or help one to understand current social situations and deal with them.
The rumour itself may not be true but it may indicate some truth or some hidden event.
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However, i must warn anyone who posts here that rumouring is a serious offence in China. The Ministry of Truth does not like any competition.
I refer you to the following article in which rumouring people have been arrested in GuangDong
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6360580%255E401,00.html
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"Citing public security, bureau officials, the paper said that on April 26 alone, some 2.13 million such messages were sent, claiming that SARS cases in China reached 10,000."
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10,000 ... not such a large number.
Sounds like small rumoring to me.

Now print "Truth" from same article:

"China and Hong Kong have borne the brunt of the SARS outbreak, accounting for about 300 deaths from a global total of more than 350."
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I think China's leaders are spiritual by promoting Buddhist ideas that all we know is really an illusion and glory awaits us upon spiritual awkening form out illusory chains.
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O-me-dou-fu for everybody.

[arioch36]

You have heard, of course, that they are going to start aerial spraying? And that there ia a reward for every rat, cat, dog, or foreigner turned into the department of health? All restaurants will close next week

[hubei_canuk]

Yeah, i heard that.
They will declare Martial Law and then airplanes will bombard the entire city with chemical disinfectant. They have special stuff leftover from WMS sales to Saddam.
Also there will be temperature regulators who will roam the city taking instant temperature readings of passerbys. Any failing the test will be dragged off in special vans to the SARS Death Camps...er... Hospitals as it were.

[taiwan boy]

SARS escaped from a Chinese bio-weapons program

There is a power struggle going on within the CCP.

SARS is spread by foreigners.

[hubei_canuk]

"SARS is spread by foreigners" - taiwan boy
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This thread is devoted to rumour not FACTS.

[arioch36]

Ditto "There is a power struggle going on"

[hubei_canuk]

BEIJING - The mounting death toll exacted by Sars in China has triggered speculation that the virus could ultimately be traced back to a leak from military bio-weapon programmes.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,186555,00.html?

http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/World/20030502074803/Article/#full

[Seth]

Hopefully this story won't turn out to be a rumor!


BEIJING (Reuters) - Outbreaks of SARS (news - web sites) are peaking in the Chinese capital, the hardest hit city in the world, with the rising number of cases "effectively checked," the health bureau said on Friday.


The evaluation was based on figures released by the Health Ministry on Thursday which revealed Beijing had had more than 1,500 cases and 82 deaths, it said.


"Since April 21, the number of SARS patients in Beijing has entered the peak period," Liang Wannian, deputy director general of Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, told a televised news conference.


"My personal judgment is the present high plateau of the number of cases in Beijing will continue for a period of time. Overall the situation in Beijing is stable, and the upward trend has been effectively checked," he said.


Cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in the capital would likely drop in the next 10 days if the virus did not mutate and take the same course in the capital as it did in southern Guangdong province and Hong Kong, Liang added.

[Egas]

Yesterday I attended a lecture by American doctor Peter Spengle of SOS in Beijing. He has not seen a single SARS case at his clinic and believes that the government is probably overstating the number of SARS cases. He bases this on direct contct with numerous doctors that come in and out of his clinic every day. He says he has good knowledge of the general scene in Beijing. He is not leaving the country, and does not consider SARS to be a high risk to the general population, (though a much greater risk to health workers) as it is not highly infectious and requires direct contact for transmission. Other forms of viral pnemonia which are air-borne are in fact many times more infectious, and there would be millions of cases by now if that were true for SARS, he said.

He feels that overall the Chinese authorities are doing a good job with SARS, and isolating anybody who has symptoms. He says many of these people do not have SARS and some of them will be misdignosed.

Dr Spegler is the second American medical professional in Beijing I have personally heard express these kinds of ideas, the other being Dr Sarah Borwein, Chair of infectious diseases at Beijing United Hospital. To be honest they are the only two I've heard in person (via lecture and discussion), but since they are saying the same thing, it is worth listening to their opinions.

What is posted here is not a rumor, but the opinion of a trained medical professional working right now in Beijing. I consider that to be much more valuable than rumors, which are generated by fear and ignorance, 99% of the time.

[wOZfromOZ]

Thanks for the stable, informed, balanced views E-gas.

I think most of us here have gained reassurance from your posts.

I wish I could say the same for the 'lunatic - like ramblings' from the canuk from Hubei. If he thinks and acts like this in front of a group of students how did he ever get into the country?

Canak - Why do you stay if you hate the place and the system so much?

.....I mean it pisses me off to at times.... but mate ....you're dead set paranoid...fruity!!!

[hubei_canuk]

Egas and Seth,
Those are very good rumours!!
Much praise for posting "Offical Rumours" in the Rumour theread.
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Keep 'em coming. it's good light entertainment in these difficult times.
I always have laugh about commie prop.
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I suppose you guys saw Elvis yesterday?
I heard he was sightseeing in Tiananmen Square with Saddam.
Jiang Qing was the tour guide.

[Kurochan]

I have a student whose dad is some sort of government official in Guangzhou. He said his dad told him that SARS was invented and spread by terrorists. He said that was all his father told him -- he didn't elaborate on who these supposed terrorists were.

[hubei_canuk]

"I have a student whose dad is some sort of government official in Guangzhou. He said his dad told him that SARS was invented and spread by terrorists. He said that was all his father told him -- he didn't elaborate on who these supposed terrorists were." - Kurochan
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It could be elements of the Communist party itself preparing to stage a Cout d'etat.
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Or it could be a branch of the American Government. They may want to put the final nail in the coffin of the commie menace.
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Or it could be a desperate measure by the chinese government to solve the population problem.
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Or it could be radical elements of the "What-Me worry? Brigade" who want to stir up trouble so they can preotest that they are not worried. This movement founded by Alfred E. Neuman and carried on by such ESL sleeper moles such as... well you know who they are.

[Egas]

Hubei_canuk,

Are you being sarcastic by calling what I've posted rumors? They are not rumors. They are opinions coming directly from medical professionals working in the field in Beijing. I have questioned those professionals personally, face to face. That is something entirely different from a rumor. Check the dictionary for a good definition of a rumor.

Disagree with the opinion if you will, but calling them rumors is just dumb.

[kimo]

I've postulated that there is a terrorist pig accompanied by a hackney duck on his/her (not yet sure) shoulder who started the whole thing. Wanted to put an end to public desecretion of his/her species.

Egas, your point is well taken, but I have had my experience with U.S. doctors, a few thousand of them. And those two are in China? Haven't heard any rumors why, have you? --- Really, though, I want to defer my complete judgment until more is known. Unfortunately, it appears that will be some time.

How do we make a living in the mean time.

Can anyone point us to some actual, patient case studies?