Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: SARS not only threat

Tuesday, April 29, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.

WHAT CAN we learn from the Chinese?

How about how not to handle a public health crisis, for starters?

Like everything else in this very complicated world, whether or not we should breathe a bit easier about SARS depends mostly upon whom we are relying for our information.

The Chinese have, for all practical purposes, ruled themselves out of the reliability mix because of how they handled the initial story of the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, for better or worse known as SARS.

The World Health Organization would have us believe that all is well -- at least in some places -- but, their good news notwithstanding, travel to many countries anywhere near Asia is practically non-existent, which gives some reason to question WHO's healthful outlook.

And places like Canada and even the United States are having some difficulty figuring out how to get a handle on the travelers who do make it into our countries and past our attempts to quarantine those who may be infected. The U.S. has even gone so far as to involuntarily quarantine a visitor who may or may not be infected. Out of caution, to be sure, but a civil-rights-affecting decision not lightly taken in an effort to save many more from possible trouble.

The bottom line, thus far, seems to be that we don't know how wide or how deep is this epidemic, but we do know that we don't yet have a cure and, therefore, we must do anything and everything in our power to prevent its spread to the community at large. Does this sound familiar? Like in the earliest days of the AIDS virus when all we knew about it was that we knew nothing and had no way to stop what looked like the 20th century version of the Black Plague?

You will please forgive my one-track mind but a story in the paper Monday about SARS made me refocus on a subject of critical importance to every person living in Nevada. I am going to tell you the specifics of the story and see if you can figure out where I am going.

The headline read: "Outbreak of Disease Forces Steep Plunge in Chinese Economy."

The story told of the fastest-growing financial power in the world, China, and how this mess with SARS has brought the economy of that country of billions to a virtual standstill.

Countries in the region who do business with China are restricted in their comings and goings to the point that those who must be there can't get in without risking quarantine at home. That is if they can get into China in the first place, which is getting increasingly difficult because of China's attempts to stem what could become the first major health epidemic of the 21st century.

For example, in the largest city in southern China, Guangzhou, what should have been a huge buildup for the May Day celebration has turned into a fizzler with no chance of a turnaround in sight. Guangzhou is the center of a SARS outbreak last winter that we didn't know about until recently. That's because it was treated as one of those Chinese state secrets.

The good news is that, unlike earlier centuries in which medical knowledge and technology consisted of bloodletting and more bloodletting, there is every reason to believe that a cure for SARS will be forthcoming and that anything resembling the plagues of yesteryear will be defeated. At least we hope so.

But what of those medical disasters for which medical technology has no cure, no treatment, no hope? If entire countries can be brought to their economic knees just because a few hundred or few thousand people out of billions worldwide get sick, what will become of cities that cater to those same people when death threats abound with seemingly no help in sight?

If you haven't already guessed, I am talking about the federal government's plan to ship thousands of tons of nuclear waste across this country, through Las Vegas and bury it just miles from the epicenter of international travel.

When President George W. Bush decided to ignore his commitment to the people of Nevada to let science determine our fate and ordered, instead, the process to start immediately, which will lead to the burying of deadly plutonium in our desert, he created an environment that could cause a public health crisis far greater than anything that could result from SARS.

One single accident on Interstate 15 could result in a high-level plutonium spill that will cause a quarantine the likes of which China can only imagine. How about 35 million people deciding not to visit Las Vegas until every bit of that nuclear waste is gone -- which could take years? Think about the economic disaster that will cause!

And, yet, that is where we could find ourselves unless the president rethinks his decision and stops this madness. Perhaps when he does come a calling on Nevada -- and he will because election time is just around the corner -- the first question out of Nevadans' mouths should be about the health risks he has created for us by not telling us the truth.

SARS is bad news but the good news is that science will probably find an answer pretty soon. Radioactive poisoning and death is also bad news but the worse news is that science will remain baffled for years and the tourists will remain home for much longer.

So, what can we learn from the Chinese?

You don't see them deliberately condemning their people to sickness and death for the benefit of a few big companies. Do you?