Posted on by steve

SARS

So there I am, in the shower at the gym, when the other guy (A) in the shower starts talking to someone who just walks into the locker room (B).

B: How’re you doing?
A:Fine, a little tired. We were looking at the SARS virus at work on Fri—
[BIG SNEEZE]–a, on Friday.

B:[pauses] Was it dead?
A:Well, it was in a dish under the microscope. It’s pretty easy to kill a virus — just take it out of the body.

Meanwhile, I’m silently freaking the fuck out. You just can’t say you were working with SARS and then sneeze, whether it was dead or not. I don’t understand biology enough to know not to freak out. Of course, I don’t really believe I’m suddenly going to get really sick, but I was certainly none too impressed with A sneezing right next to me, after having worked with the thing. Of course, I didn’t let anyone know I was freaking out. I finished my shower (soaping extra-thoroughly), got out, got dressed and came to work as usual.

Meanwhile, my folks, both hospital workers in Toronto, apparently have to have their temperature taken to go to work in the morning. If it’s up, Quarantine! Visitors are not allowed into the hospitals, which must suck, and generally people are totally overreacting, much like I nearly did today.

Welcome to the post-antibiotic age, kids!

70 Replies to “SARS”

  3. being and nothingness

    Thanks to Stv. for this excellent link. I’m not usually much of a link-follower myself, but if you’re interested in packaging, philosophy, consumerism or just want a good laugh, go there….

    Reply

  4. being and nothingness

    Thanks to Stv. for this excellent link. I’m not usually much of a link-follower myself, but if you’re interested in packaging, philosophy, consumerism or just want a good laugh, go there….

    Reply

  33. I wish that I had a pony and a boyfriend and I wish that the war is over soon. And I wish that I see a real faery before April 15th 2003

    Reply

  34. I wish that I had a pony and a boyfriend and I wish that the war is over soon. And I wish that I see a real faery before April 15th 2003

    Reply

  37. Yo!! You don’t even make sense We’re not even talking about the spanish flu!! We’re talking about YO MOMS

    Reply

  38. Yo!! You don’t even make sense We’re not even talking about the spanish flu!! We’re talking about YO MOMS

    Reply

  61. Quarantine the gouks. We should prohibit the entry of any chinks into the U.S. We don’t need any more of them in this country, stealing our men. This stupid virus started from those slanty eyed sluts.

    Reply

  62. Quarantine the gouks. We should prohibit the entry of any chinks into the U.S. We don’t need any more of them in this country, stealing our men. This stupid virus started from those slanty eyed sluts.

    Reply

  63. SARS WAS MANUFACTURED TO KILL OF A FEW MILLION ASIANS, WHO NEED TO STOP HAVING SEX AND POPPING OUT BABIES BECAUSE THEY ARE USING UP ALL OUR NATURAL RESOURCES. ASIAN GIRLS ARE WHORES.

    Reply

  64. SARS WAS MANUFACTURED TO KILL OF A FEW MILLION ASIANS, WHO NEED TO STOP HAVING SEX AND POPPING OUT BABIES BECAUSE THEY ARE USING UP ALL OUR NATURAL RESOURCES. ASIAN GIRLS ARE WHORES.

    Reply

  65. I think Mike is the most sexiest one of all!

    I LOVE SMALL AZZ DICKS! Thanks for giving girls like me who love small dicks some fun!

    Small ignorant dick bastard

    YO MAMA

    Reply

  66. I think Mike is the most sexiest one of all!

    I LOVE SMALL AZZ DICKS! Thanks for giving girls like me who love small dicks some fun!

    Small ignorant dick bastard

    YO MAMA

    Reply

  67. A few days ago, WNED in New York (a PBS member-supported TV station) broadcast a gripping documentary: “Secrets Of The Dead: The Killer Flu”.

    A number of experts working in the field said clearly that they expected the return of the horrific 1918 Spanish Influeza vrus, or a variant of it – one British expert predicted that event as occurring within the next 5 or 10 years.

    When you reflect on the fact that the 1918 flu pandemic swept away 40-60 million people arounf the globe in three separate waves over just six months and THAT before the dawning of mass air travel!), you can envisage both the scale of the potential calamity and how utterly unprepared we are to deal with it. Every continent would be visited with the same deadly scythe – Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

    The anguish would probably also be accentuated by the resulting collapse of the world economy (a very real possibility: the 1918 Flu almost had that effect in England and Germany, but disappeared just before their economies and production went over the brink because of deaths, disruption and sickness absenteeism).

    One intriguing note, though: the documentary appeared to state clearly that NO samples of the 1918 flu had been recovered from the bodies of victims buried in the permafrost. But if you go to the news reports on the excellent ‘1918 Flu’ page at http://www.survivalistskills.com/1918FLU.HTM, they appear to state exactly the opposite – and that, furthermore, the samples thus obtained were sent to the US Army’s Biological Warfare section (now re-named) at Fort Detrick and to the equivalent British biological warfare centre! That appears to be a puzzling and potentially disturbing discrepancy, since the expedition which apparently recovered the tissue samples from Svarlbard Island, in Arctic Norway, was mounted thre or four years ago at least.

    A synopsis of the program, and information on ordering the DVD of it, can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_killerflu/index.html. For balance, though, be sure to read through the varied reports on the 1918 Flu and on SARS (which, interestingly enough, two Russian experts are quoted as asserting to be a ‘biological warfare’ weapon!) on the http://www.survivalistskills.com page cited above

    Reply

  68. A few days ago, WNED in New York (a PBS member-supported TV station) broadcast a gripping documentary: “Secrets Of The Dead: The Killer Flu”.

    A number of experts working in the field said clearly that they expected the return of the horrific 1918 Spanish Influeza vrus, or a variant of it – one British expert predicted that event as occurring within the next 5 or 10 years.

    When you reflect on the fact that the 1918 flu pandemic swept away 40-60 million people arounf the globe in three separate waves over just six months and THAT before the dawning of mass air travel!), you can envisage both the scale of the potential calamity and how utterly unprepared we are to deal with it. Every continent would be visited with the same deadly scythe – Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

    The anguish would probably also be accentuated by the resulting collapse of the world economy (a very real possibility: the 1918 Flu almost had that effect in England and Germany, but disappeared just before their economies and production went over the brink because of deaths, disruption and sickness absenteeism).

    One intriguing note, though: the documentary appeared to state clearly that NO samples of the 1918 flu had been recovered from the bodies of victims buried in the permafrost. But if you go to the news reports on the excellent ‘1918 Flu’ page at http://www.survivalistskills.com/1918FLU.HTM, they appear to state exactly the opposite – and that, furthermore, the samples thus obtained were sent to the US Army’s Biological Warfare section (now re-named) at Fort Detrick and to the equivalent British biological warfare centre! That appears to be a puzzling and potentially disturbing discrepancy, since the expedition which apparently recovered the tissue samples from Svarlbard Island, in Arctic Norway, was mounted thre or four years ago at least.

    A synopsis of the program, and information on ordering the DVD of it, can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_killerflu/index.html. For balance, though, be sure to read through the varied reports on the 1918 Flu and on SARS (which, interestingly enough, two Russian experts are quoted as asserting to be a ‘biological warfare’ weapon!) on the http://www.survivalistskills.com page cited above

    Reply

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