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You might have been distracted for a moment with recent battles near and far off, but there's a new deadly virus loose in the world.
Severe Acute Respiritory Syndrome (SARS) seems to have just come out of southern China and stopped off here in Hong Kong, and now is spreading to other places in the world. Almost 2,000 cases and 70-something dead world-wide. Here in Hong Kong, 16 dead and 700 infections, people being quaranteened in camps. 1 million school children not in school, hundreds of families fleeing by air. Many people are wearing surgical masks while out of their homes. Buses are empty, it's hard to find a cab.
Actually, this probably isn't biological warfare or terrorism. Viruses mutate all the time, and there is no cure for any virus, I am told. Not even for the "rhino-virus" that causes the common cold.
In this situation, would YOU want to wear an uncomfortably hot and cumbersome surgical mask? It's mostly so YOUR droplets don't infect others, remember, and doesn't necessarily help you avoid infection. And, IF you find one for sale, which is very rare now, it will cost you 10-15 times the regular cost at other times.
It feels pretty medieval around here...very strange. You can't see people's facial expressions, whether they are smiling or not. Young children are startling more easily, and crying in fear when surrounded by these weird white blank faces...
And of course, entrepeneurs are already selling designer masks...sequins...Hello Kitty and Levis logos...bizarre!
To wear one or not?
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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It seems overly superstitious to me to wear one of those things, the virus is too small to be stopped by them anyway. You'd breathe it in no matter what...
Speaking of the far east, I found this online comic the other day that has the cutest manga boys in it!  Hehe, too bad they're thinking only of girls and computer games (and substituting one for lack of the other, like most other gaming nerds it seems )... Still, they're cute to look at, and the comic is FUNNY, especially if you like computer games and visit such websites and stuff.
This one isn't about any games, and I think most here could appreciate it. Have a look: http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=39
Hugs:
-L
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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Charlie Smith
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 46
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I go with what L says, you'll probably get it anyway so why line someone elses pocket? It's also in Vietnam and Canada. Do they wear them there too?
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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The only effective filters are HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters, which are not available to my knowledge in face masks.
A cloth filter will become damp and allow the little buggers to worm their way through a warm and damp environment into your breathing system. I have long suspected that surgical masks are just to catch spray anyway.
An interesting additional "aid" to the virus problem may be the world's current fanatical drive to micribe free hygiene. We no longer expose our kids to dirt, and thus their natural immunity is not enhanced.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I wouldn't do it. If there is a disease out there I will probably catch it regardless.. I would rather go about my buisness comfortably then wear a mask that wont necessarily protect em at all. Just pray I dont die
peace
~Andy
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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I watched a news report on it last night. No reported deaths here though. I haven't seen anyone with a mask either, though knowing our culture surgical masks may be this year's hottest Halloween costume.
Think good thoughts,
e
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Yeah, and in Canada and Singapore, too. Singapore is having nurses give health checks to anybody arriving from infected countries. Thailand has a new and fairly unenforcable regulation that people arriving from Hong Kong, etc. must all wear masks for their entire stay, wherever they go. Yeah right! Just as well I wasn't planning to visit Man for Easter, huh? I can see all those people ditching their masks right outside the airport, tho...
But 2 people have died in Thailand, so they are worried. One was the World Health Organization doctor who identified SARS in Vietnam, very sad. The other was an elderly Thai man who was in Hong Kong visiting relatives.
It seems like people are wearing the masks because they feel like it may make them safer, sort of like a good luck charm or something. Others are wearing them as a sign of some sort of solidarity, and sometimes people like me not wearing the masks are seen as anti-social or dangerous somehow.
Ah well. Half of my staff have now left Hong Kong. One as she is in the early stages of pregnancy, so I can't fault her. One was going to the States for a family wedding anyhow, so she just went early. The other 2 were made to go by panicking spouses, and didn't really want to go.
I am getting a cold, I think. Not unusual for this time of year here, the weather warming up, and raining a lot, very humid, etc. But I will worry a bit that my cold is something worse...and when I sneeze, I'll probably be arrested or something...
Have a nice day...or evening...everybody!
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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To wear One or Not? 
Re: To wear One or Not? 
