Brilliant Canadian Leadership in the Time of SARS

[Segnosaur]

Ok, so unless you're living in a cave, you may have heard of SARS. So far, several people have died of it up here in Canada. A lot of the infections here seem to have been transmitted in hospitals. Another problem that we have is that we don't properly screen people for diseases when they arrive at the airport. The Center for Disease Control in the U.S. has sent people up here to help us. And more recently, the World Health Organization has recommended people not travel to Toronto.

In such dark times, we can always count on the great Canadian leaders to see us though. Or at least provide some entertainment....

- Sheila Copps (our heritage minister) is really hitting the panic button, calling it an 'epidemic'; this is in direct opposition to what our health minister said (They can't seem to get their stories consistent)

- The government has been criticizing the WHO for the travel alert. Now, here's my question.... Our prime minister was quick to point out that the United Nations should have the ultimate authority in Iraq. So why do they think its wrong here? Does our government think they can pick and choose which parts of the U.N. it can follow?

- The Mayor of Toronto (Mel Lastman) started criticizing the CDC for the Toronto Travel aleart, until someone told him it was the WHO that put the alert in place, not the CDC

- Of course, Prime Minister Cretien snapped into action. He started another round of golf on his Carribean vacation.

[JeffR]

There's some inconsistency there, but Canada seems to be the only place where anyone is speaking out against the panic that the WHO and the media are creating over SARS.

I have not seen any critical analysis or skepticsm of SARS on U.S. TV (not that I'm seeking it out) but on Canadian TV have seen both the Canadian health minister and the administrator of the Toronto hospital where most of the suspected SARS cases are speaking out against the WHO. Good for them.

[Smalso]

More fuel for the fires of the likes of Bill O'Reily. He has been promoting a tourism boycott of Canada by the United States. Seems he thinks Canadians are so un-American.

[DanishDynamite]

Segnosaur,

Your constant need to belittle your own country (I'm assuming you are Canadian) and to suck up to the US, never ceases to amaze me.

[Mike B.]

Originally posted by DanishDynamite
Segnosaur,

Your constant need to belittle your own country (I'm assuming you are Canadian) and to suck up to the US, never ceases to amaze me.

DD I don't understand this at all. Because he is Canadian he can't have a pro-US attitude?

I mean why not say to Tricky or Wayne Grabert that you can't understand why they have a constant need to belittle their own country (USA)?

(Heavily ironic mode)

Oh right...the only good Americans are ones that do not think much of their country. ;)

[Lyle Beaudoin]

Today's Globe and Mail says:The WHO advisory, issued Wednesday morning, deemed Toronto too dangerous to visit...

I think that's overstating the problem a bit. Still, when it comes to preventing the spread of an unknown disease, erring on the side of caution is probably wise.

Wiser than worrying about one crummy tourist season. And certainly more important than worrying about what O'Reilly thinks.

[FFed]

Originally posted by DanishDynamite
Segnosaur,

Your constant need to belittle your own country (I'm assuming you are Canadian) and to suck up to the US, never ceases to amaze me.
Segnosaur is right on the money. It's called reality not sucking up.

[DrBenway]

I saw a few cases of SARS-like acute respiradory distress syndromes when I was in med school. The alveoli in the lungs thicken up and gas exchange is impaired. I saw people go from walking and talking to ventillatory support within hours. What caused these things? At that time, in most cases, we didn't know.

My aunt died of a SARS like illness a few years ago. She was golfing in Myrtle Beach with her husband. She felt ill, got a fever, and two days later, was on a ventillator. What caused it? Dunno. It wasn't SARS, because no one around her got sick.

This SARS thing looks bad to me, for three reasons: the high percentage of deaths among those who get sick, the easy way it's spread, and the fact that deaths aren't limited to the infirm.

Panic isn't going to help. But strict quarantine is wise.

[Ceinwyn]

Ok, I am really, really sick of this.

SARS kills mainly people who are already ill, or are old. The young who have died are statistically insignificant. There is no outbreak, there is no pandemic. You can go to Toronto, have a great time and get home safely.

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR. Really, just carry on.

[DrBenway]

Originally posted by buki
There is no outbreak, there is no pandemic.
There is an outbreak. People are trying to prevent a pandemic. Why is that a bad thing?

[Ceinwyn]

Originally posted by DrBenway

There is an outbreak. People are trying to prevent a pandemic. Why is that a bad thing? Ok, Where?

Show me a city that is so full of SARS that there is no turning back.

Show me any place that is SARS ridden, so that we cannot go there because we may die.

This is a minor virus that has killed a few people. It is not the bubonic plague. More have died from crocodile attacks.

Just, give it a rest.

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by buki
Ok, Where?

Show me a city that is so full of SARS that there is no turning back.

Show me any place that is SARS ridden, so that we cannot go there because we may die.

This is a minor virus that has killed a few people. It is not the bubonic plague. More have died from crocodile attacks.

Just, give it a rest.

That is completely incorrect. There is a major coverup of the SARS virus currently underway.

China has ordered a complete blackout on the number of cases of SARS in the country. Some estimates, and you will not believe this but that is fine for now because it will be proven later, put the total number of positive SARS cases at hundreds of thousands, not the "thousands" you hear and read about in the leftist media.

But it gets even scarier, almost as scary as the Stephen King book "The Stand". A full 10% of those with SARS, it will be reported within the next few days, will die from it.

One scientist has claimed that SARS cases could reach 1 billion within 6 months.

This is scary stuff. 10% of all people who get SARS die. There may be millions of cases in China and the virus is incredibly contageous.

The reason why Canada was hit hard is because of lax immigration controls at their points of entry. The virus proved those laxed controls.

China will not be able to cover up this catastrophe for long and neither will other governments. It is only a matter of time before this thing gets out of control and nation-states like China need to be honest about their real casualty levels. If SARS goes into India, it could marginalize all of Asia.

JK

[Tesserat]

originally posted by buki
This is a minor virus that has killed a few people. It is not the bubonic plague. More have died from crocodile attacks.

Isn't that kinda stupid? A few??? That normally means three or four. Are you really that clued out?

And you're comparing it to crocodile attacks? Is there a chance that crocodile attacks might spread? How many people have died from crocodile attacks during the period that SARS has been a concern?

I get the feeling that your information is coming from what your cousin bubba told you.

[Smalso]

Lyle Beaudoin: And certainly more important than worrying about what O'Reilly thinks.

Right on the money Lyle.

[Smalso]

Dr Benway, whenever there is a discussion about law, I am always glad to read the input from the lawyers who post here. Ditto from physicians on discussions of topics that deal with medicine. I have not hit panic mode yet, but I am concerned. Given my age and the state of my health, I find myself becoming concerned about more and more things. If that particular bug starts heading my way, I will become very concerned. Very very concerned; which is only a step away from panic. I believe there was an outbreak of influenza back in 1918 that sent quite a number to their reward. (No, I don't remember it; I read about it. I'm not that old.) Any information you can provide would be appreciated by me and, I am sure, many others who read this forum.

And while you're at it, I have this pain in my shoulder...:D

[DanishDynamite]

Originally posted by Mike B.


DD I don't understand this at all. Because he is Canadian he can't have a pro-US attitude?

I mean why not say to Tricky or Wayne Grabert that you can't understand why they have a constant need to belittle their own country (USA)?

(Heavily ironic mode)

Oh right...the only good Americans are ones that do not think much of their country. ;) He can be as pro-US as he likes. It just seems that he often belittles Canada in the process.

[DrBenway]

Originally posted by buki
Show me any place that is SARS ridden, so that we cannot go there because we may die.
From a public health perspective, that's not the problem. I think the Toronto cases have all been traced to one person. One person!

If everyone infected with SARS is not allowed to move and infect others for the next two weeks, theoretically, the problem will vanish. There's a brief window of opportunity to halt this illness completely.

So we should be nazis about containment right now. If this strategy fails, then next month, containment won't matter much.

Your earlier comment about SARS killing only old or sick people puzzles me. Do you have a link to support this assertion? From what I've read in the news, doctors, nurses, and travelling business people have been hit.

[NoZed Avenger]

My wife just mentioned the Austin paper stated China has now acknowledged something like 2200 cases, with over 100 deaths.

In other words, more than a few, and it seems serious enough that Toronto's tourism concerns might have to take a back seat for a couple of weeks to keep the thing from causing similar problems.


NA

[Supercharts]

Originally posted by buki

This is a minor virus that has killed a few people. It is not the bubonic plague. More have died from crocodile attacks.

Just, give it a rest.
I cannot recall a traveler from Southern Florida arriving in Boston and the incidence of crocodile attacks in Boston increasing. But I could be wrong.

[Lyle Beaudoin]

Originally posted by Smalso
Lyle Beaudoin:

Right on the money Lyle.

Should I stick around, you'll find O'Reilly and I don't see eye to eye on much. :D

[DrBenway]

Originally posted by DanishDynamite
He can be as pro-US as he likes. It just seems that he often belittles Canada in the process.
Segnosaur likes to pick on Canada's current prime minister. That's not the same thing as picking on Canada.

Many Americans enjoy picking on GWB, and don't feel that's at all contradictory to their basic love of country.

[DrBenway]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight
Some estimates, and you will not believe this but that is fine for now because it will be proven later, put the total number of positive SARS cases at hundreds of thousands, not the "thousands" you hear and read about in the leftist media.

But it gets even scarier, almost as scary as the Stephen King book "The Stand". A full 10% of those with SARS, it will be reported within the next few days, will die from it.
JK, if "hundreds of thousands" have been infected, and the fatality rate is 10%, tens of thousands of people ought to be dead or dying in China right now.

It's difficult for me to believe that China could keep the death of tens of thousands a secret. Think of the work involved in burying or cremating all those bodies. That would draw quite a bit of attention, don't you think?

If the infection rate is as high as you claim, the mortality rate must be is even lower than the 5% reported in the press. I would find that reassuring.

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by DrBenway

JK, if "hundreds of thousands" have been infected, and the fatality rate is 10%, tens of thousands of people ought to be dead or dying in China right now.

It's difficult for me to believe that China could keep the death of tens of thousands a secret. Think of the work involved in burying or cremating all those bodies. That would draw quite a bit of attention, don't you think?

If the infection rate is as high as you claim, the mortality rate must be is even lower than the 5% reported in the press. I would find that reassuring.

China is a commie state with the usual gothic internal state "secrecy". Just keep watching the news. The Chinese communists won't be able to hide this forever.

JK

[Smalso]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight


China is a commie state with the usual gothic internal state "secrecy". Just keep watching the news. The Chinese communists won't be able to hide this forever.

JK

I totally agree. First, make up your mind and form your opinion. Then tailor your statistics to fit your opinion. Don't ever allow yourself to be confused by a bunch of facts.

SARS a Commie plot.:rolleyes:

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by Smalso


I totally agree. First, make up your mind and form your opinion. Then tailor your statistics to fit your opinion. Don't ever allow yourself to be confused by a bunch of facts.

SARS a Commie plot.:rolleyes:

SARS is a commie-developed biological weapon.

JK

[FFed]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight


SARS is a commie-developed biological weapon.

JK
How do you know it's not god? I mean he does like to sit back and watch people suffer.

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by FFed

How do you know it's not god? I mean he does like to sit back and watch people suffer.

No, I don't think so.

JK

[Supercharts]

How China failed the world
April 5 2003


When an atypical pneumonia showed up in Guangdong, Beijing bureaucrats did
what they do best -- kept it secret. If they had spoken sooner, JAN WONG
reports, they might have prevented a global crisis.

Foshan is ground zero in the SARS outbreak. As far as can be determined,
on Nov. 16, two or three residents in this factory-dense city in the fertile
Pearl River delta were stricken with an atypical pneumonia now known as
severe acute respiratory syndrome. These first deaths went unremarked. Life
is cheap, apparently, when there are 1.4 billion lives.

"We did not take it seriously at the beginning," said an official from the
Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

The pathogen, still unidentified, had picked the perfect petri dish in
which to incubate, perhaps mutate, and then spread. Foshan is a metropolis
of 3.5 million, engulfed by the urban sprawl of Guangdong's nearby
capital.

Yet it remains fringed by traditional peasant farms where people and pigs
live cheek by jowl. As such, Foshan is a third-world city with all the
usual sanitation problems, but one where many residents are rich enough
to travel frequently and far.

From this hybrid of gleaming skyscrapers and farmers' markets selling live
chickens and snakes, the mystery pathogen hitched a ride to a hospital in
the provincial capital. A Chinese doctor there carried it to a Hong Kong
hotel, setting in motion a catastrophic chain of events that would end up
with more than 2,200 people infected worldwide and 78 dead, including seven
in Toronto.

What did China know, and when did it know it? And why on Earth did it not
tell the world? This is not only the story of ancient agricultural practices
co-existing with 21st-century technology. This is also the story of a cover-up.

Mindful of its lucrative tourism industry and expanding foreign investment,
Beijing fell back on a centuries-old tradition of bureaucratic secrecy and
xenophobia. With breathtaking myopia, authorities decided to suppress the
news of SARS.

"If they would have acknowledged this early, and we could have seen the
virus as it occurred in south China, we probably could have isolated it
before it got out of hand," said Dr. Stephen Cunnion, an infectious-disease
expert who is installing modern laboratories in China and who is president
of International Consultants in Health Inc., in Silver Spring, Md. "But
they completely hid it. They hide everything. You can't even find out how
many people die from earthquakes."

This week, Beijing finally admitted it had 1,190 suspect cases and 46
deaths, many more than previously acknowledged. For the first time, it
reported SARS cases in Shanghai and three new provinces, Guangxi, Sichuan
and Hunan. On Wednesday, after stalling an epidemiological team from the
World Health Organization in Beijing for nine critical days, China finally
allowed the team to enter Guangdong.

After WHO issued a rare global alert, every single country affected by
SARS began providing daily updates -- all except China, the mother of all
affected areas. With SARS now infecting 17 countries and paralyzing Hong
Kong, Singapore and Toronto, some critics are calling China's belated
acknowledgment negligent, even criminal. Without Beijing's co-operation,
fighting SARS has been like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with half
the pieces missing -- and with deadly consequences for every delay.

An official cover-up is nothing new in Communist China. In the early
1960s, Beijing hid news of widespread famine precipitated by ill-advised
economic policies during Mao's Great Leap Forward. More recently,
authorities suppressed news of an outbreak of hepatitis A in Shanghai.
And for years, China denied it had AIDS, even as peasants were selling
their blood for plasma and being re-transfused with tainted pooled blood.
In the case of SARS, the outbreak picked up steam fast. By mid-November,
five more cities in Guangdong province reported having it. By December, a mild
panic ensued in one of the cities. Seven hospital staff in Heyuan had been
infected. But information was not shared with other health departments in
this province of 80 million people. Instead, the Heyuan paper printed this
statement on Jan. 3 from the local health bureau: "No epidemic disease is
being spread in Heyuan.... Symptoms like cough and fever appear due to
relatively colder weather." That was apparently the first report on SARS in
the Chinese media.

That month, patients began arriving at Guangzhou hospitals. A pig farmer,
a seafood merchant and a 10-year-old boy all came down with an acute
pneumonia. After the boy died, hospital workers posthumously nicknamed him
"Du Huang" or the Emperor of Poison. He had infected five of them,
including an ambulance driver and doctor who later died. In Guangzhou, staff at the
No. 2 Sun Yat-sen Hospital later dubbed the seafood merchant "a walking
biological weapon." He seemed to have infected everyone around him.

Still, Chinese authorities made no official statement. Instead, they
ordered journalists not to report on the outbreak. A reporter at a
Shenzhen newspaper said the ban came even as his manager passed out Chinese herbal
medicine, supposedly to fight the disease. In late January, a newspaper in
Zhongshan, one of the affected cities, published a brief message from
provincial authorities: "This virus has been present in Guangzhou for more
than a month, and the illness of those afflicted has been effectively
treated and controlled. There is no need for people to
panic."

Rumours began to circulate. Some people sent this text message via their
cellphones: "A fatal flu has broken out in Guangzhou." Another rumour said
bioterrorists had struck Guangzhou's World Trade Centre building and 100
people had fallen ill. Managers there reacted by disinfecting the whole
skyscraper and vaporizing vinegar through the ventilation system. By Feb.
1, the Lunar New Year, south China experienced a run on vinegar,
considered a good way to fumigate a room. "You go into some offices in
Guangzhou, the whole damn building smells like vinegar, from the entrance
to the elevator and up to the office," said Ben Mok, a Canadian who is the
general manager for Coca-Cola Inc. in northeastern China. On Feb. 9, Roche
Group, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, saw a marketing opportunity in
Guangzhou. It held a news conference and handed out a fact sheet
touting one of its anti-viral medicines, Tamiflu. Sales went so well that
Roche shipped more in from its Shanghai factory. Guangdong law-enforcement
authorities warned Roche that it would be
"seriously punished if it was found to have spread rumours that Guangdong
was in the grip of pneumonia and bird-flu outbreak." Roche denied that it
had spread rumours, saying Tamiflu sales had been strong even before the
press conference.

The outside world remained oblivious until Feb. 10. On that day, Dr.
Cunnion, the infectious-disease expert, posted the first query on
ProMed-mail, a Web site run by the International Society for Infectious
Disease. "Does anyone know anything about this problem?" Dr. Cunnion
asked, pasting in this message from a friend of a friend: "Have you heard
of an epidemic in Guangzhou? An acquaintance of mine from a teachers'
chat room lives there and reports that hospitals there have been closed and
people are dying."

Jack Soo, a translator in Kuala Lumpur, replied the same day, posting
anecdotal reports from China. The secret was out.

The same day that Dr. Cunnion in Maryland was posting back and forth with
Mr. Soo in Malaysia, Beijing formally asked for help from the World Health
Organization. That, however, didn't mean it wanted WHO to actually show
up.

For more than a week, it dickered over the experts WHO wanted to send. On
Feb. 11, the Guangdong Provincial Health Bureau gave its first press
conference. Between Nov. 16 and Feb. 9, it said, 305 people were infected
and five died. But the outbreak "has been brought under control." Again,
the mantra: no problem, don't worry.

Next Magazine, Hong Kong's top-selling weekly, decided to send reporters
into Guangdong. They went to the No. 2 Sun Yat-sen Hospital, where five
doctors and nurses were rumoured to have died.

Next published its story on the mystery pneumonia in mid-February. "We put
it on the cover," said Yeung Wai-hong, the magazine's publisher. "At the
time, nobody took us seriously."

Meanwhile, one doctor, Dr. Liu Jianlun, was working long hours at the No.
2 Sun Yat-sen Hospital, caring for patients suffering atypical pneumonia. On
Feb. 15, he received a phone call inviting him to his nephew's wedding in
Hong Kong. By then, 45 people at the hospital had come down with SARS. Dr.
Liu, 64, had already been feeling unwell for several days himself, but he
didn't want to miss the wedding. He also wanted to use the opportunity to drop in on
researchers at the University of Hong Kong, to discuss the mystery illness that had killed
several of his colleagues. Dr. Liu and his wife made reservations at a
three-star Hong Kong hotel called the Metropole. On Feb. 21, they
travelled there by bus. By the time he checked in, he had a high fever and a dry
cough. The reception clerk assigned him to the ninth floor. That
afternoon,

Dr. Liu took a long nap, then struggled to get ready for dinner with his
sister's family. Experts now theorize that Dr. Liu must have infected at
least seven others on the ninth floor while waiting for the elevator. They
include a 78-year-old Toronto woman who was checking out, a man from
Vancouver, an American businessman, three women from Singapore and a
26-year-old Hong Kong man visiting a friend on the ninth floor. Each would
catch SARS from Dr. Liu. They would spread it to the world.

The next day, Dr. Liu felt so ill he went to the Kwong Wah Hospital, just
down the street from the Metropole. There, he warned staff that he was
highly infectious. He demanded a mask and an isolation ward behind
double-sealed doors with reduced air pressure. Then, Dr. Liu gave stunned
doctors a briefhistory of the illness, before falling very sick.

SARS soon began hitching rides on airplanes, to Hanoi, Singapore and
Canada. On Feb. 26, the American businessman flew to Hanoi where he fell
sick. Johnny Chen infected 20 health workers there, including Carl Urbani,
the WHO doctor who first identified the SARS outbreak. Mr. Chen was taken
back to Hong Kong, where he was admitted to the Princess Margaret
Hospital.
He died on March 13, but not before infecting dozens more health workers.
Dr. Urbani died on March 28.

The three Singapore women survived, but infected health workers at
hospitals there, including a doctor who flew to New York and was
subsequently admitted to hospital in Germany.

The 26-year-old Hong Kong man was admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital,
infecting dozens more health workers and patients at a third Hong Kong
hospital. "Had Hong Kong known more about the very first cases it treated,
it wouldn't have been passed on," said Peter Cordingley, a spokesman at
WHO's regional office in Manila. "There were nearly two crucial weeks when
this thing was growing and accelerating and nobody knew what it was."

In Toronto, Kwan Sui-chu infected several family members and her doctor.
She died on March 5. Her son died at Scarborough Grace Hospital on March
13. Since then, five others have died, and more than 160 people in Canada
are suspected of having SARS.

Prompted by the Toronto outbreak, WHO issued its first global alert in
decades. On March 12, it called SARS a "worldwide threat" for which there
is still no test, treatment or vaccine. That same day, Dr. Liu's hospital
transferred all SARS patients to a special infectious-disease hospital.
Ward 3 on the 16th floor was abandoned so hastily that last week soiled sheets
were still hanging off the beds.

But the WHO alert went unreported in China. Beijing was in the midst of
its annual two-week National People's Congress, a sensitive time when the
media rarely report bad news. On March 16, China handed over its first data to
WHO scientists. The information raised hopes because it showed that SARS
was abating on its own. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Kong Quan, announced
that the outbreak was "effectively under control." That day, Dr. Liu's
brother-in-law became Hong Kong's sixth SARS fatality.

International pressure mounted. On March 25, Health Canada stiffened its
travel warning, advising against all travel to Hong Kong, Guangdong,
Singapore and Vietnam. And for the first time, WHO began linking SARS to
the outbreak in south China. In response, China dramatically increased its
numbers. It acknowledged 792 cases in Guangdong and 31 dead, plus three
more deaths in Beijing. But it still refused to let the WHO team into
Guangdong, a province normally open to tourists and business travellers.
The state-run media remained silent. Asked this week about SARS, Paul
Yeung, a Torontonian working for a public-relations firm in Beijing,
e-mailed back: "Everything in Beijing is fine at present -- hardly any
information has been released -- so it is almost like it doesn't exist
here." On Tuesday, China Daily reported nothing about SARS, except a
mention that the Rolling Stones had cancelled their concerts in Shanghai and
Beijing. But on Wednesday, the newspaper finally ran a front-page story on
SARS, assuring readers that it was under control.

This week, the same hospital where the late Dr. Liu once worked declined
comment. "Sorry, we do not really understand. We're not too clear," said a
woman reached by telephone at the No. 2 Sun Yat-sen Hospital in Guangzhou.
Gregory J. Rummo, a businessman and syndicated columnist from Butler,
N.J., was in south China this week to adopt a baby girl. When he asked his guide
in Nanning what to do about SARS, Mr. Rummo reported that the man smiled
and told him, "I don't think you have to worry about SARS. Eat right, get
enough rest, avoid stress."

The U.S. State Department is worried. It's announced that all non-essential
diplomatic personnel and their families may leave Hong Kong and Guangzhou
if they wish. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has broadened its
travel advisory to include all of mainland China.

Meanwhile, the economic fallout from SARS has hit airlines, hotels and
restaurants Amsterdam to Zurich. In Toronto, a large international group
of cancer researchers cancelled its annual conference, which had been set to
begin today. The loss to the city is pegged at $15-million or more.

WHO, founded in 1948 by the United Nations, has no enforcement powers.
After trying polite encouragement, it apparently decided to use language
Beijing understood. On Wednesday, with its team still languishing in
Beijing. WHO issued a travel advisory for Hong Kong and Guangdong, its
first-ever global warning against travel to an area because of an
infectious disease. China got the message. The WHO team could visit
Guangdong after all. And Zhang Wenkang, the Chinese Minister of Health,
said he was sure that once it became obvious everything down there was
hunky-dory, people would surely visit China again.

Jan Wong is a Globe and Mail feature writer.

[Supercharts]

China's Health Minister Zhang Wenkang has resigned from his post and been replaced by Vice Premier Wu Yi as part of efforts to contain the SARS outbreak, says the official Xinhua news agency.

Mr Zhang was sacked from his Communist Party position on April 20 in a move seen as the prelude to his dismissal.

The mayor of Beijing, Meng Xuenong, was sacked from his Communist Party position at the same time and replaced a day later.

The dismissals followed international criticisms over China's handling of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

Ms Wu, 64, is reportedly known as China's Iron Lady for her strong personality.

She is the only woman in the powerful 25-member Politburo.

The appointment of Ms Wu was proposed by Premier Wen Jiabao and voted for by the national legislature, Xinhua said.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/38401/1/.html

[Supercharts]

Bump
Go back 2 posts. Interesting summary.

[FFed]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight


No, I don't think so.

JK
God could stop SARS if he wanted to, couldn't he?

[Segnosaur]

Originally posted by JeffR
There's some inconsistency there, but Canada seems to be the only place where anyone is speaking out against the panic that the WHO and the media are creating over SARS.

I have not seen any critical analysis or skepticsm of SARS on U.S. TV (not that I'm seeking it out) but on Canadian TV have seen both the Canadian health minister and the administrator of the Toronto hospital where most of the suspected SARS cases are speaking out against the WHO. Good for them.

I agree.... there is far too much panic over SARS. Just as when there was far too much panic over anthrax last year. Unfortunatley the panic is a problem in itself. (We can tell ourselves that there's no real danger, but if it causes people around the world to avoid Canada as a tourist destination, our economy will still suffer (even if nobody else dies). Of course, part of the problem is that we aren't running our borders properly. People aren't properly screened coming into the country.

As I said, part of the irony is that we are complaining about the World Health Organization (part of the U.N.), when just a few months ago we were saying "The U.N. is the final decision maker" when it came to Iraq.

[Segnosaur]

Originally posted by DanishDynamite
Your constant need to belittle your own country (I'm assuming you are Canadian) and to suck up to the US, never ceases to amaze me.

I used to be a very proud Canadian. In fact, in high school, I had a Canadian flag in my locker. I though Canada was great, even if i didn't always agree with the party that was in power.

My opionion started to change over the past 5 or 10 years (once I got out of university and started working, and I had time to really see what was happening.) We have an incredibly corrupt party in power, high taxes, an overhyped medical system, a country unwilling to have a working military or even have functioning borders, and a politcal system which is incredibly flawed.

Of course, its far too easy to say I'm just angry at the party in power... but guess what? WE VOTED THEM IN! More than that, whenever there is another scandal, their popularity rating actually INCREASES! Most citizens seem unwilling to open their eyes and make the tough decisions that would really matter. Because of that, I am loosing respect for my fellow countrymen (With perhaps the exception of the western provinces). This country is becoming a 3rd world nation.

Now, there is a lot to the U.S. that I like.... their political system is a lot fairer (people may complain about Bush not getting the majority of the vote, but lets face it, our prime minister only got around 40%, and he has ultimate power here.) Their tax rate is lower. Their bill of rights actually means something. (In Canada, we don't even have property rights.) And they seem to be willing to take action on issues that matter. That doesn't necessarily mean that I think the U.S. is perfect; religious fundamentalism (and all related garbage like creationism) worries me (Canada is, to its credit, more secular, even if our constitution doesn't have the same guarantees), as does some of the U.S. actions on the environment, and their failure to take on Microsoft's monopoly. But, on the whole, I respect the U.S. more than I respect Canada.

However, there are other countries I respect more than Canada. Britian for one (Same basic government setup, but a few rule differences which make for a much fairer system, and a willingness to make the important decisions. From what I've heard, they also have a better medical system than we do.) Heck, look at Israel; Canada has all the natural resources in the world and we still screw things up. Israel made a decent country out of a pile of sand, while being threatened by its neighbours.

Does that mean I'm sucking up? No, I looked at factors in the 2 countries, and came to the conclusion that Canada was far less deserving of respect than the U.S. (And, like i said, I also think Britian is a better place than Canada.) Heck, if I knew more about Denmark, I'd probably think that place was better than Canada.

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by FFed

God could stop SARS if he wanted to, couldn't he?

Want me to ask him for you? He may not reply to me because he is busy taking care of the universe, but I could try to contact him.

JK

[The Fool]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight


SARS is a commie-developed biological weapon.

JK
Do I risk an accusation of stalking if I humbly ask if you have one shread of evidence for this statement?

You really should add "my unsupported opinion is" in front of such statements or stalkers like Bjorn and I are bound to point out it is simply another fantasy.....

you were a bit slow on this one. I normally expect you to claim a disease is a communist biological weapon within 7 days of hearing of its existence.....

Actually...seeing as it has broken out in evil communist China isn't it more likely that its an imperialist biological weapon?? Bush is obviously responsible....or the Pope, maybe its the Pope.....

[Badger]

Well put, Segnosaur.

Louis St Laurent said that the 20th century would belong to Canada. It didn't. We effed away all our advantages.

Canada is full of great people. Hard working children/grandchildren of pioneers, facing unique day to day challenges. We have a great education system, vast natural resources, and a motivated population.

But we manage to vote in jokers who marginalize our strenght.

It is a true shame.

[Smalso]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight


Want me to ask him for you? He may not reply to me because he is busy taking care of the universe, but I could try to contact him.

JK

I converse with God on a regular basis and She has never mentioned SARS to me.