April 8, 2003
What Could Be So Bad About A Little Media Spin?... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes".
To travel, or not to travel - that is the question. Most people I know have no problem at all traveling within the United States, thanks to the serious revamping of our airport security. But Americans, backed by our historic freedoms as well as our pocketbooks, have always thought the world was our oyster, when it came to travel.
We felt we could go anywhere, as long as local governments didn't object, and we would do it whenever we chose. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this notion in the months and years ahead.
What war and terrorism hasn't take care of, the mighty microbe might just finish off. I'm speaking now, of course, of severe acute respiratory syndrome, also known as SARS.
First reported in China, the death toll is rising, and the spread of this mysterious malady around the world - albeit in small numbers - is due to the speed and availability of world travel.
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Just a few days ago, my airport driver reported two cancellations that very morning from longtime customers who were about to travel to Southeast Asia. Clearly, when the State Department speaks, people listen, but this still remains an individual choice.
For starters, we know so little about the transmission of SARS, and that is born out by the doctors and nurses who have contracted it simply treating the patients. When the professionals are unclear on the means of transmission, what about the rest of us?
Another difficulty is that SARS is not readily apparent: A high fever, aches and pains, a dry cough, shortness of breadth. Sounds like any number of common flu-bugs floating around. With no telling visible signs and no simple test to quickly remove doubt or spring us to action, it would seem we have an invisible killer in our midst.
At least, it is invisible for the time being.
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A team of scientists from the World Health Organization has now gone to China, hot on the trail of the source and transmission of SARS. It is somewhat ironic, that the existence of these scientists and their expertise is a product of the same society where people could so freely travel and therefore, contagion could so easily spread. Without these aspects of our global society, SARS might only been a local phenomenon.
That being said, one of the major side stories here is the reluctance of the Chinese government to report on the state of SARS. The data most recently released indicates that there has been a greater incidence of SARS in China than previously reported. Yet in the same breath, the Chinese government has also declared that the number of cases is now on the wane.
Given China's track record with the truth, one wonders how crippled the team of scientists visiting China will be, as well as how damaging this withholding of data is for the people who contract SARS.
If science is the search for a greater truth, it very much depends on the quality of lesser truths along the way. And this speaks directly to the responsibility of a government to its own people, and as well as to all humankind.
At this point, there is no doubt that we live in a global village. And like any village of any size, sometimes it's best just to stay home.
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
