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China has 1.4 BILLION people.so far,about 110 have died of SARS-related conditions.In a lot of cases,the fatalities have occured in people that are already weakened by other diseases or old age.
assuming that all of the deaths have occured inthe last 6 weeks,an equivalent outbreak in NewZealand would kill about 4 people in a year[or less,if you take into account that we are not living as close to each other as the Chinese].
Based on the latest available figures for cause of death in NZ[taken in 1998],those 4 deaths seem minor in relation to
13 People hit by trains
9 People fell from ladders
8 People fell down holes[?!]
Clearly,the risk of being infected by SARS is small.The risk of dying from SARS-related conditions is even smaller.It's been presented as a major crisis,but I don't think it's worthy of this much attention.After all,lung cancer is hundreds of times more fatal,the biggest risk factor,smoking,has been clearly identified,and yet the press are not running around like headless chickens trying to cause a panic about that,are they?
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