My first official SARS post:
Apr. 11th, 2003 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brdgt
Why I am fascinated by SARS:
As a historian I believe infectious disease is an important tool we can use to reveal hidden and disguised motives and fears that human beings hide in peaceful and safe times. When you find out that your child could go to school with someone who has an infectious disease you tend to do and say things that might go unrevealed otherwise. But it is not always the dark side of humanity that we can study, but also the heights that people go to solve problems. The role of public health in the transformation of urban life is remarkable.
Now, back to SARS. Yes, in the greater picture it has killed fewer people than so many other illnesses, the difference is that while you can get treated for pneumonia, even if you seek treatment for SARS, no medicine is available. It is textbook Natural Selection: viruses reproduce at an exponentially faster rate than say, mammals, so variations occur more frequently and in larger numbers. A virus immune to antibiotics is bound to turn up and since it has the evolutionary advantage of being immune it will continue to have offspring, while “traditional” strains will not.
Snopes.com has been reported as saying that SARS conspiracy theories have become their most searched for topic lately. It is not surprising that people search for conspiracy theories about SARS, they want to be able to blame something and blaming nature is not a satisfactory as the CIA or Chinese people who eat dogs. For historical perspective, think: Jews polluting the wells (or, more recently, being involved with 9/11, or the CIA causing AIDS, etc.
The Bad: Racism, hysteria, lack of cooperation leading to epidemic proportions
The Good: Galvanizing a global public health plan (how do you handle issues of infectious diseases in this modern world, where borders are porous and unregulated)
As a historian I believe infectious disease is an important tool we can use to reveal hidden and disguised motives and fears that human beings hide in peaceful and safe times. When you find out that your child could go to school with someone who has an infectious disease you tend to do and say things that might go unrevealed otherwise. But it is not always the dark side of humanity that we can study, but also the heights that people go to solve problems. The role of public health in the transformation of urban life is remarkable.
Now, back to SARS. Yes, in the greater picture it has killed fewer people than so many other illnesses, the difference is that while you can get treated for pneumonia, even if you seek treatment for SARS, no medicine is available. It is textbook Natural Selection: viruses reproduce at an exponentially faster rate than say, mammals, so variations occur more frequently and in larger numbers. A virus immune to antibiotics is bound to turn up and since it has the evolutionary advantage of being immune it will continue to have offspring, while “traditional” strains will not.
Snopes.com has been reported as saying that SARS conspiracy theories have become their most searched for topic lately. It is not surprising that people search for conspiracy theories about SARS, they want to be able to blame something and blaming nature is not a satisfactory as the CIA or Chinese people who eat dogs. For historical perspective, think: Jews polluting the wells (or, more recently, being involved with 9/11, or the CIA causing AIDS, etc.
The Bad: Racism, hysteria, lack of cooperation leading to epidemic proportions
The Good: Galvanizing a global public health plan (how do you handle issues of infectious diseases in this modern world, where borders are porous and unregulated)
