Lemme keep this short. I live in Toronto. People outside of Toronto used to think I was cool. Now, I can’t go see Lion King no mo’. People I don’t want to see in concert are putting on concerts to prove we’re cootie free. I can’t turn on the tv without seeing some false footage of us supposed Torontonians walking around with masks. Asian people are afraid to clear their throats…its ridiculous
I mean, the chances of catching it while visiting the city would be to ride everysingle subway, bus or streetcar and lick every available surface.
In an area of approx 3+ million people, I believe that the total number of deaths so far is under 35. There really is no reason to be paranoid.
The question is this do people outside of the Greater Toronto Area REALLY think that they’re going to catch SARS???
What most of you don’t realize is that this whole thing is ruining Toronto’s tourist industry. If this you guys don’t start coming up here, you all are going to totally screw up my Caribana. AND I DON"T APPRECIATE ANYONE messing with the winin’ of my waist!
If I do catch SARS in Colorado then I’m certain I’ll pass it off as a bad cold, miss a day of work and then get back into the swing of things right quick after the application of my tribe’s ancient cure of a can of Sprite, chicken noodle soup and DayQuil.
Ugh. One of my coworkers keeps taking trips to the US where people treat him like a leper. I didn’t understand it at first because I sincerely doubt that these people who are so afraid of him have ever gone out and gotten a flu shot. Half of them probably don’t even wash their hands before they eat. But the other night I saw David Letterman asking Charlize Theron if she wasn’t scared of working in Montreal because of “the SARS” and I realized that if I were sitting in California watching it I’d probably think SARS was an Ebola-style virus wiping out all of Canada too. I mean, whatever takes your mind off REALITY, I guess.
This satirical piece from Saturday’s London Times just about sums up the whole SARS situation :-
A Very Important Message
The World Health Organisation has issued a new warning against non-essential travel to the entire Western hemisphere following concerns about the spread of Severe Loss of Perspective Syndrome (SLOPS ).
Officials are warning against travel to the UK , US , most of Western Europe , Canada and Australia , following further outbreaks of the disease , which has led to mass panic among the media , thousands of ecstatic children being kept out of school by their moronic parents , and huge profits for DIY stores as the public rush to bulk-buy masks and boiler suites.
A WHO spokesman said “you’d be much better off going somewhere like China or Taiwan because all you’re got to worry about there is SARS, and about as likely to die from that as you are to get kicked to death by zombie nuns“.
The SARS virus has now claimed a staggering 500 lives in only six months, making it considerably more deadly than , say , malaria , which only kills around 3,000 people every day. Malaria, however , mainly affects “Johnny Foreigners”, whereas SARS has made at least one English person feel a bit iffy for a few days , and is therefore considered much more serious..
The spread of SLOPS has now reached pandemic proportions , with many politicians seeming ly affected . Its rapid spread has been linked to the end of the war in Iraq and the need for Western leaders to give the public something to worry about . Otherwise they might start asking uncomfortable questions about domestic issues , and that simply would not do.
I am far more worried about malaria, which has killed more in history than “SARS” ever will. And it’s all done by the mosquitos in your backyard. Of course, some places are more prone to it than others. But still.
And by “worry” I mean “not really”. You just have to live your life, man!
When I was in New York last week, I was apalled by the SARS coverage on the news. My God, it made it sound like an epidemic wherein people were dropping in the streets.
We’ve had friends phone us from Panama to ask if we’re all okay, and my cabbie was complaining that his relatives in Africa were doing the same. (Both had been watching CNN coverage.)
I work in Toronto’s Chinatown. No one is wearing masks. It’s totally business as usual. On CNN however, I keep seeing footage of doctors wearing googles, masks and rubber suits – not what you see at all outside of a healthcare setting.
Dear world, that footage does NOT represent the rest of Toronto.
Dear CNN, pelase take some shots outside of a health care setting. Please show the crowds of unmasked pedestrians during rush hour and the bustling unmasked shoppers in the Eaton’s Centre. Please do show the dog walkers and in-line skaters zipping along the lake shore, the beer-lovers on the crowded patios, and the hustle and bustle of Kensington Market. Stop showing the same hospital footage from three weeks ago! I kept seeing the same footage in a loop, over and over and over again.
This is not the Outbreak movie with Dustin Hoffman! You can enjoy a night at the theatre, a fine meal at a crowded restaurant and take a packed subway during rush hour.
Luckily, I found that New Yorkers are quite dubious of the CNN coverage, so most people were asking me “so the footage we see on CNN is utter crap, isn’t it?”
Letterman is a dummy. Montreal is frigging 5 driving hrs away!
Ya know??? And ironic thing is that they’re thinking of cancelling 2 of the world’s biggest fesitvals because of it, the gay pride parade being one of them. I hate to compare, but you would think that with the whole AIDS/HIV thing, that gays would have better sense than that. Now, I’m not saying that they all have AIDS or HIV or anything…but you’d think that they would know that the media is blowing the whole damn thing out of proportion.
What CNN needs to do is stop showing footage of CHINA and while talking about TORONTO.
And you Yankees better start coming! We brought busloads down there after 9/11 to support the tourism efforts, so put on your ROOTS “I LOVE T.O” shirts and spend your gajillion of dollars already…
Not intending to sound like a pretentious “bah! cite!” Doper, but… er… do you have a cite? I haven’t seen anything about a possible cancellation of Toronto Pride (I just visited the Toronto Pride website, and the Toronto Star’s and see nothing about that) and all news I’ve heard on the Pride/SARS issue is that Pride is going ahead as planned.
So now I’m wondering if there’s a report or something I missed. It’s less than three weeks away, isn’t it? I’ve read that Pride has lost about $270,000 in sponsorship and are a worried, but I thought is was still going on.
(Caribana is $700,000 short this year - quite worrisome.)
Hey! I’ve got a flight to Toronto on Thursday morning (6 AM, holy crap, what was I thinking?) to stay with a friend for three days! The initial plan was to see the Dixie Chicks concert, but since those wusses cancelled, we’re going to Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland, and the zoo, and I’m going to ride her horse and get a riding lesson (she’s a champion rider, so it’ll be a good lesson for me, who’s somewhat of a decent rider but nowhere near as good as she is). I initially thought about rescheduling my flight, but after talking it over with my other Canadian friends, I’m going.
Toronto’s one of my favorite places in the world. I’ll do my best to support it. I know my tiny contribution won’t help much, but who knows - maybe family and friends will see me go and realize that they’re blowing things out of proportion, and schedule their own trips. After the tons of people who came to NYC after 9/11 to support our city (I was living there at the time), it’s my turn.
As do I. I was in Beijing in February, then in March and April. And I would go back again should business require it.
But as I’ve posted elsewhere, people avoided me when I came back from my trips. In fact, one manager told her group that they could work from home if they needed to be at meetings with me, so they could call in instead of meeting face-to-face.
Sorry Crayons, if i may call you that. I have no cite. I just remember reading that somewhere. It probably was The Star. It also talked about sponsorship levels being at an all time low and the SARS thing not helping the situation any.
Ava…Thank you SO much for your support!!! lol…its the little things that help. Just remember when you get home, to show everyone that we don’t have cooties up here…lol
I have a slightly higher chance of getting SARS as my GF’s brother works as a nurse at Scarborough General (one of the new “sars hospitals”).
I still don’t worry. SARS is being blown way out of proportion. I still eat at Chinese resturants and go to “chinese” pool halls. I’ve never been one to respond to scare tactics by the media.
