SARS: The Grip of Fear

People all over Hong Kong are staying home for fear of contracting SARS.

Business was down in most places as traffic fell off anywhere from 30% to 70%. Airline bookings are down. Restaurants are empty. Traditionally busy Sunday shopping districts are described as being ghost towns.

What's next, tumbleweed rolling down Hennessy Road?

No one knows yet how the disease spreads with such ease. The greatest possibility of transmission lies within lifts, where infected persons spread the disease by coughing, sneezing or leaving the virus on the lift buttons when they touch them. In Hong Kong, everyone presses the "close-door" button as they're too impatient to wait for the doors to close automatically. That's as good a place as any for the disease to spread.

Masks help prevent inhalation of droplets in the air after someone sneezes, but hand-to-face transmission (the same way the common cold is spread) is doing the most damage. People would be better off wearing disposable surgical gloves.

The good news is the death rate is low. Should someone catch this bug, they have a good chance of recovering. Severe influenza epidemics take a much higher toll, but it's easier to sell newspapers with scary-sounding words in the headlines such as atypical pneumonia and killer virus.

Whatever the case, fear has gripped the city; those who were laughing are no longer certain that those taking precautions were overreacting.

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