Just when you thought you had all
fun you could possibly handle with Saddam Hussein, North Korea, Al Quaeda and winter that just won't die, along comes SARS – severe-acute respiratory syndrome.I recently fielded a call on this subject from one of my biggest fans: "You moron. What do you mean we can fight SARS with our heads? Can't you see? We are all going to die. Die. Die, I tell you."
"Please, mother. Don't panic. Panicking will only make it worse."
"What do you mean make it worse? How can it be any worse? People are dying all over place. It's all over news. Every day. This is just horrible."
"So far, out of six billion people on earth, only about a hundred have died. Most of those are on other side of planet. That's not good for them, but risk for us is way smaller than it seems."
"Then why does it seem like it's everywhere? Why won't TV people stop talking about it?"
"Well, TV people have all sworn a secret oath. They are to maintain high professional standards, report news as objectively as possible and do whatever is necessary to scare people to death. See? It's simple."
"I don't know ..."
"Sure, mother. Why do you think that if somebody walks into a McDonald's and blows away a table of nuns, it makes headlines all over country, but when 500 thousand people walk into McDonald's and order Big Macs that same day, there's not a peep out of media."
"I don't know dear."
"Why do you think we always hear about airplanes crashing to ground, but never about airplanes taking off safely? Three hours late, mind you, but safely nonetheless."
"Well ..."
"And why do you think that media focus on handful of politicians involved in bribery, corruption, sex, violence, nepotism, pick-pocketing, slander, lying, demagoguery and falsifying their resumes, when they could probably find a handful of upstanding, honest politicians?"
