Swine Flu & SARS

This morning the breaking news was that there is a suspected case of Swine flu in an elementary school in Chicago. It reminds me of SARS. I was in the center of that pandemic a few years ago. Guangzhou was close to Shenzhen, where the disease was originated, and had a lot of casualties. But unlike Beijing, our metropolitan area wasn't shut down. Southern Chinese just have a much pragmatic way of dealing with sufferings in life. I still needed to take the bus to go to work. Few people were wearing masks on the street. It seemed to me that after the first couple of weeks of panic, people just realized that life has to go on. Everybody dies, one way or the other. What is the use of being afraid all the time?

More importantly, it's the lesson we need to learn as a species. Those whom were infected with SARS and didn't die ended up being disabled the rest of their lives because their lungs were collapsed by the disease. It's their lives we need to care about, not the sensational death tolls.