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[bhg] 20/4/2003 16:35

Pure paranoia may be an understated response. The credentials of the author of the article below make it a sobering read.



SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome):

A Great Global SCAM


One excerpt

Included here are stunning and tragic contracts under which numerous AIDS-like and Ebola-like viruses were bioengineered by the U.S. Army's 6th leading biological weapons contractor-Litton Bionetics-a medical subsidiary of the mega-military weapons contractor called Litton Industries. You can get free information on this man-made vaccine-transmitted theory of AIDS at Here I focus your attention on SARS, and what mainstream sources of information are withholding about this new pandemic.

[banshee] 20/4/2003 16:02

SARS is indeed likely to have a bigger impact on the world economy than the iraq war, the human and economic costs will be stupendous if it carries on the way it is going. The problem is that because its symptoms are not unique and easily identifiable, and because its so infectious as a variant cold virus I can't see how it can be contained in the short/medium term once it gets out into the rural areas of China and India (and its probably there already in China).

Talk about it being an escaped bio-terror weapon is nevertheless pure paranoia. The fact that in emerged in Guandong, famous for its new strains of flu virus is a strong pointer. The problem is this area of the world provides large concentrations of animal and human cohabitancy allowing animal viruses to either jump species into humans, or swap genes with human viruses creating occasionally deadly new strains.

There undoubtably has been a cover up of a kind in china, for various reasons, not least because it is part of the system there, to the great detriment of the rest of the world on this occasion, regardless of that though, this was a disaster waiting to happen.

[divina] 20/4/2003 15:23

SARS could have a bigger impact on world economy than the IRAQ War!

Sars Cases Rise as Chinese Health Minister is Sacked

CHINA has reported an increase in deaths from the deadly Sars virus, with a nearly tenfold rise in cases in Beijing.

Officials have now cancelled a major holiday - the week-long May Day break.

The official Xinhua News Agency also reports Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong have both been sacked from powerful Communist Party positions.

China's top leaders had earlier sternly warned officials to report Sars cases accurately.

A senior health official told a news conference today that Sars had killed 12 more people and that the number of infections in Beijing has soared from 37 to 346.

The new figures raised China's total number of deaths to 79 and its cases to 1,814, says Gao Qiang, an executive vice health minister.

"With such a situation, with more than 300 patients in Beijing, the situation is already very serious," Gao said, adding that there were 400 more suspected cases in the capital.

[divina] 20/4/2003 11:10

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it is "very
pleased" that China has admitted that there are substantially higher number of
SARS cases in Beijing than previously reported, adding that it is a step in the
right direction.
"We are very pleased," Jeff McFarland, a member of the WHO team of experts
probing the extent of the disease in Beijing, said.
"This now includes military hospitals and we have been told they they will
now report figures daily.
"It means all hospitals are represented."
But he expressed concern that while a more thorough examination of hospitals
had been achieved in Beijing, this is not the case around the country,
particularly in poor, rural areas where facilities and reporting systems pale in
comparison to the capital.
"Clearly this system (of opening up) has just started," he said.
"We will have to wait and see how it goes in other places. Just getting the
military hospitals in the system here is important.
"But of course it is a concern for everyone, everywhere that WHO has not
visited the rural areas."
The WHO has so far been allowed to send a team of experts to investigate
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in southern Guangdong province, where the
illness is believed to have originated in November, and Beijing.
A team is due to start probing Shanghai on Monday.
Chinese health official Zhu Qingsheng said today that the WHO may also be
allowed into "some western regions".

[divina] 20/4/2003 08:40

Dear Friends,

I am pasting below an exclusive report from Time
Magazine for your info on SARS from China.

No wonder SARS epidemic is going to get worse before
it gets any better. One would suspect that China is
hiding something on this disease which could be a
bio-terror weapon let loose from a lab.

What you have to do is boost your immune system since
there is no known cure yet.

Regards

Divina

"Beijing Hoodwinks WHO Inspectors

You may also follow the link if you want to read it at
Time's website:



TIME Exclusive: Hospitals in the Chinese capital hid
SARS patients from international health officials
BY SUSAN JAKES

Friday, April 18, 2003

Before World Health Organization inspectors visited
Beijing hospitals earlier this week, hospital
officials removed dozens of SARS patients from their
isolation wards and transferred them to locations
where they could not be observed by the inspectors,
doctors at those hospitals have told TIME. On Tuesday,
just hours before the WHO's inspection team arrived,
more than 40 confirmed SARS patients at the capital's
No. 309 People's Liberation Army Hospital were
transferred out of their beds to the Zihuachun Hotel
on the hospital grounds and at the China Japan
Friendship Hospital 31 confirmed SARS patients, all
doctors, nurses and hospital workers, were packed into
ambulances and driven around Beijing for the duration
of the WHO team's visit, the doctors said.

These doctors' revelations are the latest in a string
of disclosures by local medical personnel that suggest
the staggering extent of Beijing's cover up of the
deadly outbreak. China's Ministry of Health came under
fire for underreporting cases in the capital and
elsewhere in China early last week when doctors around
the country began to report caseloads of SARS victims
that radically contradicted the ministry's official
figures for the disease. Citing concern over "rumors"
of unreported SARS cases the WHO announced late last
week that it had been granted permission to conduct a
five-day inspection tour of the capital's medical
facilities in order to ascertain the truth about how
Beijing was handling the outbreak.

On Tuesday, TIME received a letter from an informed
local medical source charging that in order to prepare
for the WHO team's arrival, Beijing's No. 302 People's
Liberation Army Hospital, already full to capacity
with SARS patients, had emptied its two infectious
disease wards of SARS patients. According to the
source, "The 302 hospital originally had two wings
devoted to infectious respiratory diseases where SARS
patients were being treated. But now there are only a
handful of SARS patients remaining, all of whom are
already well on their way to recovering. Several
severely ill SARS patients have been transferred to a
third wing which is not a ward for infectious
respiratory diseases. As for the other the patients, I
wonder where they've been moved." The WHO team met
with officials at the No. 302 Hospital, but never
toured the wards.

Yesterday, a TIME reporter received a telephone call
from another source saying that just after WHO team
members said they would make a last-minute visit to
the China Japan Friendship Hospital, patients were
"rushed into ambulances and driven around the city for
several hours." The source, who refused to give her
name, said that "nurses at the hospital were furious
that they had been confined to ambulances with
contagious patients." She added that at the No. 309
Hospital on Tuesday SARS patients had been transferred
to an "inn" on the hospital grounds.

Last night, a TIME reporter spoke by telephone with a
doctor at the China Japan Friendship Hospital who
confirmed this story. "Yes, what you've heard is
true," he told TIME. "We have 56 confirmed SARS
patients at our hospital but the hospital has only
reported 41 to the authorities. Among the 56 there are
31 doctors, nurses and hospital workers. It was these
31 who were put into the ambulances. The other SARS
patients were in their beds for the WHO's inspection."
According to the doctor, the staff at the China Japan
Friendship Hospital were infected in late March while
treating a Taiwanese SARS patient who later died of
the disease. A spokeswoman from the hospital, surnamed
Liu, refused to comment on the doctor's story and told
TIME's reporter to call the Beijing Municipal Health
Bureau. The Health Bureau referred TIME to a local
English language SARS information hotline.

A doctor at the No. 309 Hospital also confirmed the
source's story. "We moved 46 of our SARS patients to
the Zihuachun hotel on Tuesday," he said, "There were
about 10 SARS patients in the ward when the WHO team
visited. The hotel is being disinfected now. I don't
think it will open again. It was going to be renovated
anyway." But when TIME called the No. 309 Hospital's
main office to ask about the transfer of patients, a
man who refused to give his name said, "We are not
answering any questions," and then hung up.

A retired senior doctor who once treated high-ranking
Communist party cadres also spoke with TIME last night
and confirmed that Beijing is continuing to
deliberately hide SARS cases. "I've seen an internal
Ministry of Health report which puts the number of
confirmed SARS cases in Beijing at between 200 and
300, based on accounts from individual hospitals," she
said, "Another internal document I've seen says that
in the last 10 days there have been more than 100 new
cases reported in Beijing." Publicly, the Ministry of
Health maintains that there have only been 40 SARS
cases in Beijing.

Over the entrance of what used to be the China Japan
Friendship Hospital's emergency room is a blue and
white banner that reads, "SARS Diagnosis Wing." Seated
at a table beneath the banner are three doctors
wearing face masks, blue head covers, plastic goggles
and disposable gowns. Not an inch of their skin is
visible. One doctor rises to approach a TIME reporter.
When asked about his hospital's treatment of SARS
patients he replies with mounting anger, "I can't tell
you any details because I don't want to lose my job.
All I can tell you that the government's handling of
this matter is absolutely irresponsible."

[l2e] 20/4/2003 02:44

ANY IDEAS?

The first commercial test for the respiratory virus that
has killed 144 people worldwide is being distributed by a German biotechnology
company.

[maywillow] 15/4/2003 00:01

Certain Exhibitions being cancelled

[bobp] 07/4/2003 19:58

The fact that people in their 70s and 80s are dying isn't the point.
The point is that hysteria is the greatest 'infection' and as we saw today, 2 more airlines have stopped routes their due to lack of trade, due to hysteria.
Over 100 dead so far.

[maywillow] 07/4/2003 09:21

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) - Overseas companies in China's major cities are taking
no chances after the death of the first foreigner from Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS), issuing face masks to employees, banning business trips and
disinfecting offices.
"Our company is regularly being disinfected. We have given our staff
medicine and a protective face mask," said Shinny Wu, spokeswoman of German home
fittings company Kohler in Shanghai.
"We have also passed around notices to remind staff how to prevent the
disease."
The death in Beijing over the weekend of Pekka Aro, a Finnish official with
the International Labor Organization (ILO), has reminded expatriates that anyone
can fall victim to the virus.
At least 51 deaths from SARS have been reported in mainland China and 1,247
people have been infected, according to the most recent official figures.
The vast majority of the deaths have occurred in southern China, where the
virus most likely originated.
But even in Beijing, with just four reported deaths, and in Shanghai, with
none, foreign companies show signs of becoming more jittery.
They also seem to have taken little comfort from promises by Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao that his government is "fully capable" of controlling SARS and
"guarantees" the health and safety of foreigners.
In the capital, foreign executives are so hungry for information that
up-market Beijing United Family Hospital has agreed to arrange a presentation to
explain prevention of SARS.
Staff in Beijing's expatriate residential compounds, home to foreign
businesspeople and their families, are beginning to spray corridors and
elevators with disinfectants.
In Shanghai, Swiss food maker Nestle is closely observing new developments
of SARS and has posted an internal memo to remind staff to pay attention to the
disease and to explain prevention methods.
"We decided to cancel a news event which was scheduled this week in Shanghai
in order to avoid the staff taking a flight," said Nancy He, a spokeswoman for
the company.
According to Helen Jiang, a Nestle employee, staff members who have a cold
or exhibit symptons of SARS do not have to come to work.
"But up till now everyone has been coming to work," she said.
German chemicals maker BASF considers the threat of SARS serious enough to
put part of its staff in charge of tracking developments in the field, said
spokeswoman Irene Gu.
"Our company has set up a SARS working team, which meets every day, and
tells the staff about SARS prevention methods and gives them updates of the
latest information," she said.
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has not made specific
recommendations to its members about how to react to SARS.
"Probably the best way to deal with it is for businesses to make their own
decisions based on information from their national embassies and the WHO," said
Ian Kay, the chamber's executive general manager.
While the United States has offered to pay for US diplomats and their
families to leave all posts in China due to fears over the rampant spread of
SARS, few, if any, other diplomatic missions have followed suit.
bms-ph/mp/rcw/ng/wk

[crystalclear] 07/4/2003 08:46

Hyper Al
It's going to be the old who get hit worst.

Where do you get that from?
I thought that older people had stood up to the disease very well and most of the deaths were in middle age people.

It is early days yet, but plagues have killed 80% of populations and this seems to kill a few percent at the most. They may even all have something in common like having had a particular vaccination or having a particular gene, so it could be that Joe Soap is almost garanteed to be safe.

Keep us informed!

[waldron] 07/4/2003 02:05

(Adding comment on China handling of disease)
LUCKNOW, India (AFP) - World Health Organisation (WHO) director general Gro
Harlem Brundtland said China should have acted sooner in letting the agency help
with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.
In a BBC report, Brundtland said China should have reported its first cases
of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) more quickly.
"Next time something strange and new comes... let us come in as quickly as
possible," she said on the BBC's World Service radio.
SARS has now spread to more than 30 countries and its death toll is rapidly
approaching 100.
"It would have been definitely helpful if the international expertise and
WHO had been able to help at an earlier stage," said Brundtland, who is visiting
India.
"When I say that it would have been better, it means that I'm saying as the
director general of the World Health Organisation: next time something strange
and new comes anywhere in the world let us come in as quickly as possible."
Earlier Brundtland told reporters "stringent measures" were being taken to
curb the spread of the disease, which is now believed to have infected more than
2,700 people.
"During my entire period in office, it is for the first time that I have
come across a situation where the cause of the disease is not known," she said
here, the state capital of northern India's Uttar Pradesh.
"Stringent measures are being taken to restrict the spread of the disease.
We are in touch with all the organisations involved and our website on SARS is
updated with latest information," she said.
"We are trying to tackle the problem in a systematic way."
bur-th/tr

[waldron] 07/4/2003 01:59

GUANGZHOU, China (AFX-ASIA) - A World Health Organization (WHO) expert has
said other countries have a lot to learn from the experience of southern China's
health care workers treating victims in the frontlines of the battle with the
mysterious atypical pneumonia.
Despite the government announcement Sunday that four more patients --
including the first foreigner -- have died from the new disease and 57 more
people have been infected in China, James Maguire said there were lessons to be
learned from China where the disease first broke out.
"The number of patients at the peak of the epidemic admitted to this
hospital and other hospitals was staggering," Maguire said at the Guangzhou No.
8 People's Hospital, which treated more patients than any other in China.
The hospital in the city of Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province where a
team of WHO experts are probing the virus, treated about 265 patients in just
the past two months.
At the peak of the epidemic on Feb 13, 150 patients were hospitalized with
high fever in the 400-bed hospital.
"The numbers were staggering in the first couple of weeks but in a very
short period of time ... (doctors and nurses) very quickly recognized the nature
of the epidemic, the nature of the disease and were able to change their methods
very quickly," he said.
"And that resulted in saving a lot of lives ... I think there's a lot to be
learned (by other countries)."
One of the steps the hospital took was as simple as installing more fans in
all the rooms and ensuring a good flow of air and by leaving doors and windows
wide open, McGuire said.
"You walk into the hallway and ... it's like a breath of fresh air. You
think of hospitals as being stuffy and closed up. The ventilation made a huge
impact," he said.
The disease, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), is believed to be
spread through contact with droplets from infected persons' talking, sneezing or
coughing. Experts suspect the droplets might linger in the air or on the surface
of objects, infecting others.
Staff at the No. 8 Hospital also took personal protection measures, such as
wearing masks and gloves, frequently cleansing and disinfecting the wards, and
paying close attention to caring for contaminated material, McGuire told
reporters.
However, Yin Chibiao, deputy director of the hospital, revealed later that
hospitals only learned after making mistakes.
He said several of the patients were family members of people who were
hospitalized and they were allowed to visit the patients and help care for them
-- leading to more infections.
"Like AIDS, at first we didn't know what it was but now we have a treatment
method," Ying said.
After 10 doctors and 10 nurses in the hospital became infected, the hospital
installed the fans and no health workers got sick after that, he said. The
hospital did not install air conditioners so as to make sure there is a free
flow of air.
The number of cases dropped steadily after February 13, with only 32
patients hospitalized now.
Only 11 of the hospital's SARS patients died and many of them were mostly
elderly people in their 70s or 80s, with the two youngest being in their 40s,
Yin said.
There was no obvious connection to animals as patients came from all walks
of life, including jewelry and seafood vendors as well as a few farmers, he
said.
Most patients seemed to have become infected through close contact with
patients -- either by frequently being around or caring for infected family
members or friends, while others may have had contact with an infected person
but did not know it, he said.
Ying expressed confidence the epidemic which has now spread to more than 30
countries after first surfacing in China in November, will be controlled.
"I don't think it is very scary ... I think if there's early treatment,
early management, it should be controllable," Ying said, but he added there's a
curve as seen in Guangzhou and the number of cases in other countries might not
have peaked.
WHO experts have said they are encouraged by the fact the number of new
cases in China have declined, but they do not know exactly why and are here to
find out.
With the new cases revealed Sunday, China now has 51 deaths and 1,247 cases
from SARS, making up a majority of the world's total.
cs/hw/wpf

[r.dryden] 06/4/2003 21:37

whats all the fuss about?
its only 'flu.
millions died of "Asian" 'flu in the 50's
and nobody made a fuss.

Take an aspirin daily and a few days off
and don't spit in public (or was that tb?).

Global slowdown and recession has already started.
Why blame it on SARS?

[waldron] 06/4/2003 21:36

WHO




Bob time will only tell.The Global slowdown ,sadly is already here.

[bobp] 06/4/2003 21:31

Have they found the cause yet?
ie/ pigs and chickens like 'normal' flu?
This, I believe, could create a global slowdown and world recession!

[hyper al] 04/4/2003 08:00

maywillow

I would give it at least 6 months before I would visit. If it's under effective control we will know by then. Remember it took China months before it told the full story to WHO.

[maywillow] 04/4/2003 07:25

WHO to believe?

Beijing is a safe place to live in and visit as the "atypical pneumonia" - also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - has been brought under effective control, the nation's health minister said Thursday

[waldron] 04/4/2003 07:19

LONDON (AFX) - Many of the UK's biggest companies are banning staff from
travelling to places hit by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a survey
for BBC radio has indicated.
Out of 34 FTSE 100 companies which took part in the survey, 56 pct had
imposed a travel ban, while 12 pct were considering such action and another 21
pct said they were monitoring the situation.
On Wednesday, the UK government's health department "strongly advised"
travellers not to go to Hong Kong or the southern Chinese province of Guangdong,
the epicenters of the global outbreak of the deadly pneumonia-like virus.
The World Health Organization issued a similar warning Wednesday, the first
in its 55-year history.
The UK government also said that travellers to Singapore, Taiwan, the
Canadian city of Toronto, Vietnam's capital Hanoi, China's capital Beijing, and
the northwest Chinese province of Shanxi need to be aware that SARS has been
reported in these places as well.
Three people who showed the pneumonia-like symptoms of SARS were reported in
the UK last month, but chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said Thursday
that all have recovered.
He said on BBC radio's Today program that the main priority in the UK was to
ensure that all doctors and nurses were familiar with the symptoms, so that any
genuine SARS cases could be identified and treated promptly.
"It is a pretty serious form of pneumonia... We want to get on top of it
quickly, so it is a question in each of the localities where it is occurring, of
getting the disease under control," he said.
rom/yad/wpf

[8para] 03/4/2003 23:16

moregas - 02 Apr'03 - 18:35 - 224 of 290


ha ha ha..good crack lads.
actually I knew somebody..went to leics uni..it was all the rage apparently to shoot it onto the ceiling..a bit confusing for me that. though a long stading thing at scott lane primary was to grip your foreskin, wee to get a pressure baloon and then try to flip it and let it loose to get it to the ceiling of the toilets. went on when i was there and years and years later when my mum was a Dinner Lady there.

My credibility is gownig dooom. info overload blah blah blah

[hyper al] 03/4/2003 23:14

2 suspected cases of SARS reported in Dundee