SARS:  A Chinese Blunder?

By Carl F. Worden

I don't know who gives advice to the Communist Chinese leadership with regard to damage control and "spin", but they need to engage a new agency and execute the idiots who came up with the brilliant plan to make SARS look like an American boo-boo.  If this doesn't make the Red Chinese look stupid and guilty, I doubt anything else ever will.

Based upon the detailed analysis available to date, I believe SARS, AKA Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which has killed 1 out of 5 people in those areas originally infected in China, and over 55% of people over age 60 in those same originally infected areas, is an artificially genetically enhanced bio-weapon that got away from a Red Chinese lab.

It is composed of the common cold "Corona" virus, and it has additional genetic material from a cow virus and a mouse virus that have teamed up to be quite deadly in humans.  Some microbiologists suggest it is a naturally mutated virus that "jumped" from animal to man.  Forgive me, but based on the analysis of this bug, it "jumped" from mouse-to-cow-to-man, or from cow-to-mouse-to-man, and either way, I'm not buying it.  If SARS isn't a bio-weapon, then I'm the AFLAC duck!

So in order to divert world attention from all those poor souls infected and dying in concentrated numbers in mainland China, the Chinese decided to "cleverly" create a story in the Hong Kong newspaper Wenweipo, that SARS is an escaped U.S. bio-weapon that first attacked some hapless 45 year-old woman near Philadelphia around February 9, 2002.  It killed her, and the symptoms were much the same, but she was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia, and SARS is a virus.  Close, but no cigar!  Some Taiwanese media outlets floated the story as well, but the fantasy just isn't sprouting legs, and it never will.

Common sense tells us that the origin of this virus is Mainland China, whether it is a virus that "jumped" from animal(s) to humans, or whether it "jumped" out of some broken vial in a Red Chinese military laboratory.  Either way, it really doesn't matter:  Based on the human population that has been the longest infected by SARS, you still have a 20-55% likelihood of dying if you get infected.

Call me crazy, but the fact that the Red Chinese even tried to float this bogus story demonstrates a clear consciousness of guilt.  It tells me they know damn well SARS is genetically altered, and they are pretty sure we'll eventually figure that out.  I believe I already have.

Living here in Southern Oregon, it came as a great concern to learn that there are now 65 suspected cases of SARS in the San Francisco Bay Area, and 20 of those have been confirmed, so here's my advice to you folks who might be exposed:  Don't get exposed.  a 20% fatality rate at all age groups overall is way too high, and SARS is known to kill perfectly healthy people with perfectly healthy immune systems, so don't flippantly entertain the thought you can fight it out.  You have a one-in-five chance of drowning in your own blood.  Oh, did I forget to mention that?  Yes, that's how you will die:  Your lungs will begin to hemorrhage blood, and you will die by asphyxiation – drowning in your own blood.

SARS is known to rapidly spread among people in enclosed environments, like airplanes.  For that reason, I will not be flying or attending public meetings or going to the mall.  I will not be eating or drinking out.  If I shake hands with someone, or if I touch a doorknob or if I use a public telephone, I'm going to immediately wash my hands.  In fact, I'm going to be a hand-washing fool until this thing is figured out.

SARS is known to survive on "surfaces" for quite a long time.  The reports didn't indicate what kind of "surfaces" would be considered the most optimal as opposed to those surfaces considered by the virus to be most hostile, but need I remind you how many items you are now buying that are "Made In China"?  It is not my intent to cause undue concern, but if this deadly virus can survive on surfaces for a very long time, I'd be a bit concerned where those surfaces came from, wouldn't you?

I have a very bad feeling about this SARS outbreak.  The Common Cold is something we've all had to learn to accept and live with all our lives, because medical science has never been able to produce a vaccine for it.  Now we have a deadly combo-virus loosed upon us, and it is genetically based largely upon the same Corona Virus medical science has never been able to defeat.  That is why I'm worried.

Carl F. Worden