{"id":155037,"date":"2013-04-25T09:39:34","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T16:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=155037"},"modified":"2013-04-25T09:39:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T16:39:34","slug":"has-china-learned-from-sars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/","title":{"rendered":"Has China Learned From SARS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a new report on the H7N9 flu outbreak, Chinese health officials warned on Wednesday that the death toll is likely to rise<\/strong><\/a>. From Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times:<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a report on the outbreak<\/a>\u00a0that began in\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0in February, doctors and researchers from from several public health agencies said they suspected that most of the 82 people with confirmed cases of bird flu contracted the H7N9\u00a0virus<\/a>\u00a0from healthy-looking animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, the mortality rate is 21%, but since many of [sic] patients with confirmed H7N9 virus infection remain critically ill, we suspect that the mortality may increase,\u201d they wrote in their study, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. \u201cSince this H7N9 virus appears to have emerged recently to infect humans, population immunity is expected to be low, and persons of any age may be susceptible to infection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report paints a fuller picture of the outbreak, which hascaused Chinese people to become so panicked<\/a>\u00a0that one motorist felt the need to flag down police after a bird dropping landed on her car.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, who covered the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong and mainland China ten years ago, traces the origin and uncertain path of the H7N9 virus<\/a><\/strong> and asks whether the Chinese government has changed its approach to its latest health scare:<\/p>\n

People’s Liberation Army Col. Dai Xu insisted via Weibo and on China’s CCTV that the fearfulness felt by the Chinese in the face of H7N9 flu is part of an elaborate American conspiracy — one first executed in the creation of SARS: “The national leadership should not pay too much attention to it,” he wrote. “Or else, it’ll be like in 2003 with SARS! At that time, America was fighting in Iraq and feared that China would take advantage of the opportunity to take other actions. This is why they used bio-psychological weapons against China. All of China fell into turmoil and that was exactly what the US wanted. Now, the US is using the same old trick. China should have learned its lesson and should calmly deal with the problem. Only a few will die, but that’s not even a one-thousandth of those who die in car crashes in China.”<\/p>\n

Famous for his nationalistic comments, Xu reportedly gained 30,000 Weibo followers in the 24 hours following this comment. He also drew criticism, to which Xu responded that his detractors were working with “American devils,” adding, “It is\u00a0common<\/a>\u00a0knowledge that a group of people in China have been injected with mental toxin by the U.S. I will not retreat even half a step.”<\/p>\n

Just as the virus stands at the fork of a bifurcated road, so does the Chinese Communist Party. Though hardliners within the party may share Xu’s extremist views, the leadership this week took a remarkable step down a different, enlightened path, sending H7N9 test kits and viral samples to Taiwan. If China hopes to avoid the shame it experienced after covering up the SARS epidemic a decade ago, the government and the party will take the high road — that’s the one that shares samples with Taiwan and timely information transparently with the entire world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chinese government has acted with more transparency than it did ten years ago, claims The Washington Post’s Max Fisher, but the disease is spreading<\/a>. He details “three very bad signs” about the new avian flu<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s very deadly, with 18 percent mortality so far.<\/strong>\u00a0For comparison, tuberculosis has a mortality rate of\u00a0about 4 or 5 percent<\/a>\u00a0in China. Still, the avian flu virus that had its first outbreaks in China in 2006, known as H5N1, has a mortality rate of\u00a060 percent<\/a>\u00a0and has killed hundreds of people on multiple continents. It\u2019s way too early to tell H7N9\u2032s mortality rate, given that many infected patients have not yet fully recovered, but it\u2019s so far killed about 18 percent of patients.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cThis is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses that we have seen so far.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0according to Keiji Fukuda<\/a>, the World Health Organization\u2019s assistant director general for health, security and the environment, who added, \u201cThis is an unusually dangerous virus for humans.\u201d Fukuda said the WHO is still struggling to understand the disease, but he certainly seems to be sounding the alarm.<\/p>\n

3. More easily transmitted than the 2006 avian flu outbreak.<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s also according to the WHO\u2019s Fukuda<\/a>, who says this new strain is more easily contracted than the H5N1 virus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new report on the H7N9 flu outbreak, Chinese health officials warned on Wednesday that the death toll is likely to rise. From Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times: In\u00a0a report on the outbreak\u00a0that began in\u00a0China\u00a0in February, doctors and researchers from from several public health agencies said they suspected that most of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":983,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14744,14745,14746,100,6,5,1],"tags":[219,16066,641,97,2378,1591],"class_list":["post-155037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-sci-tech","category-society","category-uncategorized","tag-bird-flu","tag-h7n9","tag-public-health","tag-sars","tag-transparency","tag-world-health-organization","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nHas China Learned From SARS?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has China Learned From SARS?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a new report on the H7N9 flu outbreak, Chinese health officials warned on Wednesday that the death toll is likely to rise. From Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times: In\u00a0a report on the outbreak\u00a0that began in\u00a0China\u00a0in February, doctors and researchers from from several public health agencies said they suspected that most of the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Greene\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Greene\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Greene\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/3393334e12ee6be1f84abbe56c37b108\"},\"headline\":\"Has China Learned From SARS?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\"},\"wordCount\":760,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"bird flu\",\"H7N9\",\"public health\",\"SARS\",\"transparency\",\"world health organization\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Level 2 Article\",\"Level 3 Article\",\"Level 4 Article\",\"Politics\",\"Sci-Tech\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\",\"name\":\"Has China Learned From SARS?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Has China Learned From SARS?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times (CDT)\",\"description\":\"Covering China from Cyberspace\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"width\":186,\"height\":177,\"caption\":\"China Digital Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cdt\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/3393334e12ee6be1f84abbe56c37b108\",\"name\":\"Scott Greene\",\"description\":\"Scott Greene grew up in Singapore and graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in East Asian Studies. His chief interests are Asian politics, business, media, information control, and international affairs.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/scott-greene\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Has China Learned From SARS?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Has China Learned From SARS?","og_description":"In a new report on the H7N9 flu outbreak, Chinese health officials warned on Wednesday that the death toll is likely to rise. From Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times: In\u00a0a report on the outbreak\u00a0that began in\u00a0China\u00a0in February, doctors and researchers from from several public health agencies said they suspected that most of the […]","og_url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/","og_site_name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","article_published_time":"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":186,"height":177,"url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Scott Greene","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cdt","twitter_site":"@cdt","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott Greene","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/"},"author":{"name":"Scott Greene","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/3393334e12ee6be1f84abbe56c37b108"},"headline":"Has China Learned From SARS?","datePublished":"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/"},"wordCount":760,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"keywords":["bird flu","H7N9","public health","SARS","transparency","world health organization"],"articleSection":["Level 2 Article","Level 3 Article","Level 4 Article","Politics","Sci-Tech","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/","url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/","name":"Has China Learned From SARS?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-25T16:39:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/has-china-learned-from-sars\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Has China Learned From SARS?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","description":"Covering China from Cyberspace","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization","name":"China Digital Times","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","width":186,"height":177,"caption":"China Digital Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","https:\/\/x.com\/cdt"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/3393334e12ee6be1f84abbe56c37b108","name":"Scott Greene","description":"Scott Greene grew up in Singapore and graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in East Asian Studies. His chief interests are Asian politics, business, media, information control, and international affairs.","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/scott-greene\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}