WHO. like CDC, puts out a whole lot of advisories that never make the front page, largely because of the fact that the subject isn't amenable to sensationalism. When the papers and broadcasters decide that an issue like SARS can be used to good advantage, watch out! I would suggest that there is a substantial amount of editorializing, enhancing, emphasizing, and general massaging to make the story sexier between the time that the WHO advisory is released and when the next edition hits the front porch. It is stories like this that turn normally respected media into clones of the Enquirer (SARS Made Bigfoot Rape Me and Father My Lovechild!).

   SARS is, undoubtedly, a significant public health problem, especially for a public that is woefully uninformed about management of such problems. But it is no more likely to be the end of the world as we know it than was AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, Anthrax, Yellow Fever, Polio, Swine Flu, or any other you might name.