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SARS Creating New Headaches for Health Officials
Aired April 22, 2003 - 15:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well now let's go back to our lead story this day, and that is the SARS outbreak. It has created a whole new set of headaches for officials around the world.
Here now, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Faced with an infectious disease, government has to create rational concern and control irrational fear. SARS is especially fearful because it is so contagious. It's very different from AIDS, a disease that's more difficult to catch. The AIDS challenge has been to raise the level of concern among people who don't believe they are at risk.
ELIZABETH GLASER, AIDS VICTIM ACTIVIST: When I tell most people about HIV, in hopes that they will help and care, I see the look in their eyes. "It's not my problem," they're thinking. Well, it's everyone's problem, and we need a leader who will tell us that.
SCHNEIDER: The SARS challenge is to control the tendency to panic among people who do believe they are at risk. That's been a problem in Canada, which has more documented SARS cases than the United States.
DR. ELIOT HALPARIN, ONTARIO MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: This is the 9/11 of respiratory disease. And we've woken up one morning and our life has changed.
SCHNEIDER: In small ways for many people. Like churches in Toronto placing communion waivers in parishioners' hands rather than their mouths on Easter Sunday. And in big ways for some people, like placing a quarantine on 500 members of a Canadian prayer group.
HALPARIN: What it points to basically is just how vigilant everyone has to be and just how important it is that when people are asked to go into quarantine that they actually do it.
SCHNEIDER: Involuntary quarantines would be difficult to enforce in the United States, particularly because SARS symptoms mimic the symptoms of colds or flu. But it's crucial for government to maintain the impression that the situation is under control.
DR. JAMES YONGE, ONTARIO PUBLIC SAFETY COMM.: I would not leave any impression that we've lost control. We have a difficult task that counts on people cooperating, but we have not lost control.
SCHNEIDER: The United States did maintain the impression of control during the anthrax scare. The number of Americans who said they were worried about exposure to anthrax peaked at about one-third in 2001. The same as the number who were worried about being exposed to SARS now.
(on camera): One government has failed disastrously to keep the situation under control. That's China. Ironically, a communist government that believes in total control. The government lied about the number of SARS cases. The loss of public confidence has now created the greatest challenge to the Chinese government's authority since Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 22, 2003 - 15:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well now let's go back to our lead story this day, and that is the SARS outbreak. It has created a whole new set of headaches for officials around the world.
Here now, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Faced with an infectious disease, government has to create rational concern and control irrational fear. SARS is especially fearful because it is so contagious. It's very different from AIDS, a disease that's more difficult to catch. The AIDS challenge has been to raise the level of concern among people who don't believe they are at risk.
ELIZABETH GLASER, AIDS VICTIM ACTIVIST: When I tell most people about HIV, in hopes that they will help and care, I see the look in their eyes. "It's not my problem," they're thinking. Well, it's everyone's problem, and we need a leader who will tell us that.
SCHNEIDER: The SARS challenge is to control the tendency to panic among people who do believe they are at risk. That's been a problem in Canada, which has more documented SARS cases than the United States.
DR. ELIOT HALPARIN, ONTARIO MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: This is the 9/11 of respiratory disease. And we've woken up one morning and our life has changed.
SCHNEIDER: In small ways for many people. Like churches in Toronto placing communion waivers in parishioners' hands rather than their mouths on Easter Sunday. And in big ways for some people, like placing a quarantine on 500 members of a Canadian prayer group.
HALPARIN: What it points to basically is just how vigilant everyone has to be and just how important it is that when people are asked to go into quarantine that they actually do it.
SCHNEIDER: Involuntary quarantines would be difficult to enforce in the United States, particularly because SARS symptoms mimic the symptoms of colds or flu. But it's crucial for government to maintain the impression that the situation is under control.
DR. JAMES YONGE, ONTARIO PUBLIC SAFETY COMM.: I would not leave any impression that we've lost control. We have a difficult task that counts on people cooperating, but we have not lost control.
SCHNEIDER: The United States did maintain the impression of control during the anthrax scare. The number of Americans who said they were worried about exposure to anthrax peaked at about one-third in 2001. The same as the number who were worried about being exposed to SARS now.
(on camera): One government has failed disastrously to keep the situation under control. That's China. Ironically, a communist government that believes in total control. The government lied about the number of SARS cases. The loss of public confidence has now created the greatest challenge to the Chinese government's authority since Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
