NYT: After Its Epidemic Arrival, SARS Vanishes

[DeepModem Mom]

After Its Epidemic Arrival, SARS Vanishes
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: May 15, 2005


BEIJING, May 14 - Two and a half years after a mysterious respiratory illness from southern China infected thousands of people around the world and brought dire predictions of recurring and deadly plague, the virus known as SARS has again provided a surprise.

It has disappeared, at least for the moment.

Not a single case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been reported this year or in late 2004. It is the first winter without a case since the initial outbreak in late 2002.

In addition, the epidemic strain of SARS that caused at least 774 deaths worldwide by June of 2003 has not been seen outside a laboratory since then. SARS is not even the nastiest bug in its neighborhood, as health officials warn that avian influenza in Southeast Asia poses a far greater threat.

In cities like Guangzhou and Beijing, once under a state of alert because of SARS, public hysteria about the disease has long since given way to public nonchalance.... Health officials in China are also less alarmed, but they warn that SARS could still pose a threat. This caution partly reflects the lack of knowledge about the virus: What caused it to become so virulent in the initial outbreak? Where has it gone? Will it come back?...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/health/15sars.html

[Occulus]

1. See, okay, these are the kinds of reports that make me think

someone's developing something, or trying to.

We don't know what our government does with all our money. Admittedly, there are some things, some lines of research, which directly affect our national security. That said, who's to confirm to me that our government does not have the capability to engineer a virus?

SARS came, and then it went *poof*. Did it find a resevoir somewhere? Maybe.

But who's to say it wasn't simply taken "off the market", as it were, instead?

[cestpaspossible]

2. It could have been a test release of a biological weapon.

As our main geopolitical adversary, China is the logical place to do this.

[Maple]

3. Or like all viruses

it mutates and disappears.

[Kokonoe]

4. Or the virus is still there but does not affect us.

For now.:smoke:

[Maple]

5. It does a virus

no good at all if the host dies, so viruses mutate into something less lethal.

[stickdog]

6. Yep. Just like AIDS and polio and typhoid and malaria, right?

Come on.

[fasttense]

7. Those viruses you just named allow a victim to live and spread the

virus, at least for awhile. A virus that kills immediately is less likely to spread rapidly, at least in developed countries where they remove the dead quickly.

[stickdog]

12. SARS only kills a small subset of its victims quickly. It's

rapid appearance and disappearance are NOT some obvious, wholly explained, well-understood product of natural viral selection and you show your ignorance to argue otherwise.

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. "Andromeda is mutating"

[donkeyotay]

8. There is the possibility it was bioterrorism

Remember how bush crime family said they were going to "punish" those who didn't go along with their war?

Where did the outbreaks occur? China and Canada.

Now, poof, gone like a fart in the wind.

Kind of reminds me of how we were facing those nasty power outages that disappeared after a few hundred billions of tax dollars were requisitioned.

Or how during the election all we heard about was how an American city was going to be hit by a dirty bomb...

Funny, how things just happen for the junta. Makes you wonder.

[AngryAmish]

9. Clearly US bioweapons program aimed at China

No one is allowed to dissent from Amerikkkan hegenomy.

[fed-up]

10. Older article on SARS-fromthewilderness

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/050903_SARS.html

Combining Biological and Economic Warfare

---snip

In this role, SARS fits the bill perfectly because it has successfully terrified much of the world's population, weakened the Chinese economy and set the stage for more deadly diseases while avoiding the real issue. SARS serves the role of something long-practiced in covert operations and warfare – a dry run on serious population reduction and management. Ultimately something will give. And ultimately – as people begin to starve – population issues will have to be addressed, both in terms of number and in terms of maintaining order. SARS, while most likely not the agent envisioned by some scientists as the "big one," conveniently serves the dual purpose of conditioning populations for the time when forced vaccinations may accomplish the task or when they will be told to surrender all personal liberties as a more deadly disease occupies the stage.

snip...

[truth2power]

11. Hmm...before I clicked on this thread my thoughts

were similar to what's been posted here. Bioterrorism? Strange that this disease just disappeared. I'm going with the "rolling out a new product for testing" angle. :tinfoilhat: