Hello, ummm I think there is still hope to keep the disease under control. I think there is a threshold at some point which once you cross the critical barrier the disease will spiral out of control unless we quarantine everyone and keep contact with others to a bare minimum... or any other severe measures that will clamp our economy and way of life into a standstill. I'm looking at Hong Kong as a thermometer to that kinda scenario. Will it spiral out of control over there? Already there are cases of more resistant strains of SARS there that are not responding as well to treatment.
When that happens here, people who visted hospitals, other SARS affected countries(the so called 'high risk' people right now) will no longer be the only ones we have to be wary of, instead there's no way to trace the disease (index, primary, secondary, tieriary...) People will take a lot of precautions (wear masks etc and avoid high exposure areas i.e. shopping malls) People can no longer keep to our way of life... We will become paranoid and isolated. The might be further repercussions such as the breakdown of society but perhaps that is in the worst case scenarios.
Ok, this might all sound a little far fetched, but it's possible if things turn out like that. The government have taken measures, but there needs to be a compromise btw extreme measures and keeping our way of life don't you think? I'm glad I'm not the one who makes the decisions that affects all of us.
I remember there were some talk some time back with a few pharmeceutical(spelling?) companies into researching a cure or vaccine for SARS but they said they they would not do so because at such an early stage of the disease it was not financially viable. I take it that they mean they would not be able to recover the costs of R & D or it would not be profitable if they were to venture on such a project? Is this true? Does anyone remember this? How does it make you feel?
Please don't flame me this is only a point of view.