Re: Composer victims of the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic

Kip Williams <kip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> appears to have caused the following
letters to be typed in news:gtb5da$jge$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

The week before we went to China in 2003 to pick up our baby daughter, I
was sick as a parrot. I had to head for the bathroom 24 times in 24 hours.
In the middle of all that, they announced -- or rather, admitted -- the
existence of SARS in China. (And just to make it more interesting, Bush
invaded Iraq either the day we departed or the day before.)

By the end of the two weeks, the level of paranoia was interesting. In
Guangzhou they gave everybody in the group a gauze mask to wear, if
desired. We chose not to, having ascertained somehow that if we wore
such a mask, we would be treated as if we were sick and possible
carriers. By the time we were in Hong Kong, we were given little forms
to fill out that swore we were okay and not going to give it to anyone.

When I vacationed in Toronto in 2003, it was at the height of the SARS
business. I had flown there seated next to an elderly Brazilian couple
holding a very squirmy baby, and I apparently got some sort of rhinovirus
from the baby. I felt better on and off during my trip, and did a lot of
walking around; at one point I realized that, unawares, I was walking right
past a major hospital.

When I flew back, I had to control my sniffles long enough to attest at the
checkin counter that I was not carrying SARS, nosirree. I was a bit amused
because a runny nose was a *contraindication* of SARS. I didn't feel much
better a couple of days after my return, so I saw my otolaryngologist, and we
had a chuckle over the fact that I had gone to Toronto and picked up a bug.

--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
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Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers

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