Job Discussion Forums

[gmat]

Just curious as to why there have been no reports from Beijing teachers regarding the situation there.

It is a fact that students of some universities have been sent home for "at least" a one month holiday.

It is a fact that university students have died in the capital.

Why aren't teachers there giving us updates on what is going on in their uni or other schools?

I know earlier some of the posters had been downplaying the situation in BJ and they are looking a little foolish now. But what about other reports?

[Egas]

I work at Beijing International school, and there have been zealous processes in place, most of which are unnecessary, but it helps keep the parents happy. SARS is not a significant problem for school aged students. Very, very few children have contracted the disease. Even for the general population you are about 200 times as likely to die in a car accident in China as die from SARS, based on its extent today. I saw two serious car accidents on the way to work today, but didn't meet anyone with SARS, or hear of anyone in this school who has known a friend or colleage who has it. There are over 2000 teachers and students at this school. It's a fair microcosm of Beijing, at least of the ex-pat community.

The panic that the general population has shown is based on ignorance of the true extent of the disease. Though more people will get SARS, and some of them will die (mostly the old and sick), it is not necessary for any given individual in the general community to be unduly alarmed. If you are going to panic about SARS, then you should be in a state of total terror about stepping into a car in China, where 12 000 people die each month. Strangely, the media will not cover the two accidents I saw this morning (one of which was trully horrific), nor will it dwell on the hundreds of others who will die today on the roads.

I went out on Saturday, and saw first hand the extent to which the general population has become deluded about SARS. Empty bars, empty shopping malls, people wearing masks for a disease that isn't even airborne, and which is not highly contageous. Short of touching someone in the advanced stages of SARS, or swapping spit or nasal discharge, you won't get SARS.

The one good thing to come out of this whole farce is that the Chinese Government has had to take a good long look at itself, and the culture of public deception which has pervaded it for so long. The Chinese government can no longer operate as aloof, deific autocrats, as they did in days gone by. The world has just changed too much, and so has China. If they had simply presented a policy of transparency from the word go, the general public would not be so spooked about a disease that pales in comparison to the 36 000 people who died in work-related accidents in China in the first quarter of 2003. At least the government came clean about that one, with not a ripple of panic in the community. What a strange world we live in...

[gmat]

Egas:
Why do you continue to talk about unrelated issues. We all know about work-related and automobile deaths in China. I agree that most people recover from the disease, especially young people, if they receive proper care.

However, your posts last week proved to be foolish (not worried; only 37 cases in BJ, etc.). I want some information from teachers at unis in BJ that are directly affected, where students have been sent home on a one month holiday, etc.

And please stop posting blatantly false claims, that is, that SARS is not highly contagious. I quote and refered to links below:

http://tinyurl.com/a0u3
"Are we fast enough?" said Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, writing in a current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "Can we prevent a global pandemic of SARS?"

If civilization is lucky, Gerberding said, diagnostic tests and treatment will be found to curtail the epidemic. A seasonal pattern will evolve, allowing scientists to contain infections within regions, and the infection rate would be slowed.

If the virus escapes the noose of public health control strategies, the world will be in for a long, difficult struggle.

"In either case, the race is on," said Gerberding. "The stakes are high. And the outcome cannot be predicted."


Highly contagious; Vaccine will be hard to find. http://tinyurl.com/a0sy

China admits Sars may spread out of control http://tinyurl.com/a0c5

China's top genomics institute discovered that the Sars virus was mutating rapidly when it independently sequenced its genetic blueprint, raising new fears about developing a vaccine to combat it. http://tinyurl.com/a0sb


Schools and universities in Beijing are suspending classes or closing down faculties after deaths or cases of Sars on their campuses. http://tinyurl.com/a0s9


You are spinning SARS more than the Chinese government!

[Hamish]

I dunno what all the fuss is about.

As of today, WHO numbers.

Total cases known in the world 3861
Total dead 217

Total in China 1959
Total dead 86
Total recovered 1187

Remaining with SARS in China 687 of whom most, if not all, are in hospitals.

The graph for date of onset of cases peaks sharply in mid March and drops precipitously ever after.

There may be a problem yet to come, as no one knows what life has in store, but I can�t see any evidence that should cause people to be upset. The stuff on TV and in the newspapers is, in my view, super ventilated hype designed to sell soap and beer.

I notice some of the people in meetings on the subject are smoking cigarettes to calm their nerves. Over a million people died in China last year due to that disease. It seems to me that many of the people who are so exercised about this episode must have lived awfully protected lives if they consider this circumstance to be dangerous.

The best advice I have heard so far is that we should carefully wash our hands before we pick our nose.

Regards,

[Roger]

Not a joke - recently the SCMP reported that CHinese men began smoking again in order to "kill the disease..."

[chinasyndrome]