Peg's reference to flu mortality rates is most apt. It is likely the press has reported this on a different proportion than other "flu" type outbreaks because they have not gotten expected answers from national and world health organizations, as in the past. SARS has not shown normal affect in culturation with a producable vaccine and this has led to medical care facilities to follow stringent bio-security measures in that any average patient population is already at risk of furthur infection, and, often at a weak immune level.

It seems too often that when simple sound-bites cannot further be ground into pablum for the six-o'clock news the press invents its own good news-bad news horror stories for the all important advertising dollar. Yes, SARS is bad news in that it has not been controlled, and we are forced away from loved ones in their time of need. If there is good news, the overall rate of mortality is the same as any bad flu. But, as with any bad flu, it is havoc on the elderly.