93645757
Good article in Slate about the media reaction to SARS. he argues that the sensationalism was probably a good thing. I tend to agree.
“All the fuss may well have contained what could have been a truly panic-worthy epidemic. While we have yet to learn how bad the epidemic will get, it is almost certain that without the WHO’s pre-emptive global alert and the resulting avalanche of news stories about the disease, the situation could have been far worse than it is. Though SARS is not quite as contagious as the flu, it can still be spread through relatively casual contact. If lots of sick people were taking long plane flights or wandering around on the streets for days, the risk of catching it from them might not be negligible. We know that a handful of individuals can spread the disease from one country to 26 others in a matter of weeks (SARS was introduced to Hong Kong, which now has the highest rate of infection, by a single person arriving from mainland China). How much worse would the epidemic be if travelers had not avoided certain cities; if airports had not quarantined symptomatic passengers; and if sick people had not confined themselves (or been confined) to their homes? Almost certainly much worse, in which case we would have had the hysteria and the economic damage, anyway. And we’d also have an epidemic on a scale that was really something to panic about. ”