Unless you live on a deserted mountaintop without electricity, you have heard of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). SARS was first discovered sometime after February 1, 2003 in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. A little more than a week ago, the disease had spread to several countries, affecting more than 1600 people. Today, there are 2,722 known cases, including 166 here in the States.
In just a little over a week, the statistics have almost doubled. Isn�t it bad enough trying to live through the diseases we already have in existence? My first thought when this disease was first mentioned was to quarantine those few infected people and force this disease to die out. If this had done with all other communicable diseases, we wouldn�t be suffering from them today. But as with many other things that make the most sense, this idea wasn�t given a second thought. �Humans are not animals; you can�t just quarantine humans like they�re rabid animals.� Why the fuck not? It takes between 2-4 weeks to treat this disease and rid a body of it, assuming that it is recognized as SARS and treated as such. If those first few people who were infected had been quarantined, this disease would have been void by February�s end. There would be no widespread warnings and no limits on travel (which should have been done immediately). There wouldn�t be so much panic exploding everywhere. My friend has chosen to keep her daughter home from her class�s field trip to a zoo because of her fear of SARS. You know what? I can�t blame her. This disease has proven that it can travel faster than wildfire uphill. And as we all know, children are germ magnets. But because of the careless ways people spread their disease, this little girl has to give up her chance to have fun with her classmates. It pisses me off to no end that a disease was discovered in time to eliminate it, yet they chose not to do so. I believe it was somewhere in China where they finally did decide to quarantine their infected residents. But what good does it do now that they have allowed it to spread and no one else is willing to quarantine? It�s not inhumane to quarantine. It�s not as if these people would be sent to some concentration camp where they�d be starved, beaten and euthanized. They�d be segregated, temporarily, and treated with the proper medications. What is so wrong with that? That could have prevented all or most of the 106 deaths that have resulted from this disease. But instead, let�s give up everyone else�s well being in order to not �mistreat� 2700 people. Where is the logic?
I have always been careful when I am in public not to get too close to people or touch my hands to my face when I haven�t had the opportunity to first wash my hands. I have never been paranoid, just very cautious. People are filthy creatures and it is too easy to pick something up from anywhere. With SARS I am still not quite paranoid, but I am definitely a hell of a lot more careful and I am definitely getting annoyed with sick people now. Why is it when someone who is as pale as a ghost, hotter than the desert and hacking up a lung, insists upon going to the most crowded public places? Why is it that humans, being selfish by nature, are so willing to share their diseases? You go to a store, stand a decent distance behind the person in front of you only to have the person behind you standing so close, you can taste what they had for lunch. People drag their little germ bags they call children with them every where they go and these kids roam the stores, coughing and sneezing and of course their parents still have yet to teach them to cover their little disease infested portals. Of course how could they teach their children these manners when the parents have yet to learn them? People, for the love of God, if you are sick, do the decent thing and stay home until you are no longer sick! If the World Health Organization isn�t going to do its part, than at the very least do yours. Don�t go to over populated areas and spread your illness to me. I don�t want it. Cover your mouth when you sneeze and cough and then be sure not to lay those germy hands on anything that I may touch! Don�t rest on my back as if it�s there for your support. Don�t get so close to me that I can see every little pore on your face. I am tempted to start carrying a can of Lysol around with me so that I can disinfect everything, and everyone for that matter.