Krista, I am getting my information directly from staff in the hospitals. It is supported by what I hear in the news, which talks very little about "confirmed" cases...just "suspected" cases, and talks exclusively about self-imposed closings of facilities as opposed to legislated ones. Again, those "closings" are taking place for legal reasons--hospitals are afraid of litigation and liability. They will be held responsible if people die because of any disease: in the case of SARS, there is an hysteria about, which only sparks litigiousness. They are not capable of treating large numbers of people scared about being sick, and they are not capable of fending off liability suits. So they opt to play it safe and shut down.

In Canada, there have been 6 deaths attributed to SARS. All of the dead were aged and infirm before contracting the disease. It is always disputed that they suffered from SARS because death by pneumonia in cases such as these is so common.

All the quarantines have been self-imposed, not legislated. Those in hospitals with a suspected breakout are required to wash their hands and wear a mask: they can come and go from work. Those who were exposed to confirmed cases are asked to quarantine themselves. Again, it is a voluntary quarantine. One woman I know is at home, wearing a mask, but her family comes and goes as they please and are not required to take any precautions. No one's sick yet at her house, and the 10 days are almost up.

Those of us outside of hospitals are required to...do nothing different. Take the subway, go to the ball games and concerts, go to the malls, go to work, etc. etc. etc. Oh: stay home if you feel flu-ish. But that applies all the time, not just now. It especially applies during flu epidemics. Which I must re-state, kills many, many, many, more people every year, from all age groups, from all walks of life, in all states of health at onset.

The disease can by passed via droplet infection. That means someone who has SARS has to cough on you, when you are in a state of deficient or compromised health and susceptible to the disease.

I heard of one more dead this morning: as of late in the afternoon, the death is still "suspected" and not confirmed to be from the SARS disease. The woman was in hospital for treatment of some type of disease, and supposedly caught the SARS while in hospital, suffering from the other ailment. She was 67.

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine