SARS report from Germany

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A regular Influenza wave kills between 5000 and 8000 people in Germany every year and a pneumonia wave about 18,000. In comparison, worldwide about 8.400 people became infected and almost 800 died because of SARS. The probability to catch an Influenza Virus in Germany and die because of it was far greater than with SARS. The travellers advices concerning Germany were never voiced and SARS disappeared after half a year. The hysterically announced epidemic was an endemic infection at most. They are also not to be take lightly, and warnings as well as precautionary measures are recommended in time, this sort of exaggerated production, however, stands in no relation to actions taken. This is how Dr. Oliver Razum from the Heidelberger department of Tropics, Hygiene and Public Health, criticizes in the medical journal �The Lancet�, the media coverage as hysterically exaggerated, non-scientific and merely fear-spreading. This fear is so effective because it taps into the human collective memory - the fear-memory of plagues. And the more organizations like the WHO confirm the danger, the more credible it appears. Facts and numbers hardly play a role then. It remains unanswered in whose interest is it to spread such fear. One fact, however, was proven: we live in a virtual world. Source: Journalist 7/2003

Extracted from the English version of "Raum & Zeit" (Sep-Oct 2003 issue).

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