Sars Cost The City Of Toronto Over A Billion In Lost Revenue Don't Take The Threat Of Ebola Lightly

[tinydancer]

I'm already seeing posts mocking anyone who has concerns about an ebola outbreak. Those mocking are fools. I pray it doesn't but if you get an outbreak of ebola like we had with SARS it really is a nightmarish situation.

I lived in Southern Ontario in a bedroom community outside of Toronto when SARS hit. Very few became ill and less than 50 people died but for six months it was living hell for the citizens of Toronto and the surrounding areas.

The economic toll was unreal. The personal toll was beyond belief. SARS wreaked havoc with millions of peoples lives.

Even if you hadn't been exposed when they started to shut down hospitals women were quarantined with their newborn babies.

Sons and daughters were denied entry to hospitals to be with dying parents. Businesses were shut down. Money was lost hand over fist for Toronto businesses.

Tourists were afraid to come. Conventions were cancelled. People were on edge everywhere. Many wore masks even to Blue Jays games.

Fear was palpable. It got to the point that our Prime Minister flew in from Ottawa to eat at a Chinese restaurant to show people that they could still go out to eat.

Didn't convince many. I'm not putting this up to be a fear monger. Au contraire. Just trying to inform that if a serious outbreak hits where you live you better be prepared for some really weird times.

Here's the financial wrap. It really hurt the city.

SARS fallout to cost Toronto economy about $1 billion: Conference Board

CBC News Posted: Dec 04, 2003 10:25 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 04, 2003 10:25 AM





The fallout from the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto is expected to the shave about $1 billion from the city's economy this year, the Conference Board of Canada is forecasting.

Toronto's real gross domestic product was expected to grow by 3.8 per cent in 2003, prior to the outbreak of SARS, the private research organization said. In the wake of the outbreak, the Conference Board has dropped growth projection for Toronto to 3.3 per cent in 2003.

"The SARS outbreak will have a heavy impact on the tourism, transportation, and retail trade sectors," Mario Lefebvre, the associate director of the Conference Board's metropolitan economic outlook, said.

The Conference Board said the impact of SARS alone on tourism excluding airport traffic is estimated to be a loss of $350 million this year, a nine per cent decrease. Reduced airport activity will lead to an additional loss of $220 million, while non-tourism related retail sales will be cut by $380 million.

SARS fallout to cost Toronto economy about 1 billion Conference Board - Business - CBC News

 

[tinydancer]

And here's a link to the timeline of how the SARS nightmare unfolded for TO.

This is just the beginning. One month only. It was crazy.

INDEPTH: SARS
Timeline
CBC News Online | Updated December 15, 2003

2003: Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2004: Jan | Apr

Feb. 15, 2003
China reports 305 cases of atypical pneumonia (later classified as SARS).


March 5, 2003
Sui-chu Kwan, a 78-year-old woman who had travelled to Hong Kong in February, dies of SARS in Toronto.

March 12, 2003
World Health Organization issues a global SARS alert.

March 13, 2003
Kwan's son Chi Kwai Tse, 44, dies of SARS at Scarborough Grace Hospital in Toronto.

March 17, 2003
Health Canada announces 11 suspected cases of SARS in Canada. There are nine in Ontario, one in B.C. and one in Alberta.

March 18, 2003
Doctors in Germany say they have found signs of a paramyxovirus in blood samples from one SARS patient. Scientists in Hong Kong confirm the findings in samples of two other patients. Paramyxovirus is the family of viruses that includes the one causing measles. Scientists say the theory makes sense, since pneumonia can be a complication of measles.

March 19, 2003
Health Canada suggests people should postpone travel to high-risk parts of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Singapore. World death toll of SARS estimated at 11.

March 20, 2003
Hong Kong health officials link recent global spread of SARS with a guest in a local hotel. Epidemiologists traced the illness back to a professor from China who was staying at Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel. Five other people who have come down with SARS stayed at the same hotel, with some of them staying on the same floor as the professor.

March 21, 2003
A Canadian man who shared a hospital room with Tse dies from SARS. He was in his 70s. Canadian scientists say they've isolated the virus in SARS. They find human metapneumovirus in six of the eight Canadian cases. The virus comes from the same family that gives people mumps or measles.

March 23, 2003
Scarborough Grace Hospital closes temporarily. The chief of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority is admitted to hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms. Doctors are not sure if he caught SARS.

March 24, 2003
Singapore's health minister orders hundreds of people who may have been exposed to SARS quarantined to their houses for 10 days.

March 25, 2003
Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement declares SARS a reportable, communicable and virulent disease. This gives health officials the authority to track infected people and issue orders to stop them from engaging in activities that transmit SARS.

Ontario health officials report another case of SARS. About a dozen health care workers are placed in isolation and are being monitored after coming in to contact with a SARS victim.

There are now 18 probable cases in Ontario, with another five suspect cases, and 25 others under investigation.

The Toronto school board closes David Lewis public school temporarily after three students come down with unexplainable fevers. Although the school is in the same area as Scarborough Grace Hospital, school officials say there is no known connection between the outbreak and the school.

March 26, 2003
Ontario declares a public health emergency and orders thousands of people to quarantine themselves in their homes. There are 27 probable cases of SARS in the province. Toronto hospitals begin barring visitors.

March 27, 2003
Hong Kong quarantines more than 1,000 people and closes schools. The Rolling Stones postpone their weekend concerts in Hong Kong. Meanwhile researchers at the University of Hong Kong say they have proof SARS is a coronavirus. They say they've designed a quick test for the virus, however one Toronto expert questions its effectiveness.

Singapore closes its schools.

A Taiwanese engineering company closes because five of its employees exhibit SARS symptoms; this causes Tapei to declare a medical alert.

WHO asks airlines to screen passengers for SARS on flights leaving from Toronto, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi, Taiwan and China's province of Guangdong.

WHO reports more than 1,400 cases worldwide. This includes at least 53 deaths.

Ontario health officials order Toronto hospitals closed to visitors, exempting only those who are visiting critically ill patients and parents visiting children.

March 28
WHO says 85 new cases of SARS are identified around the world. It also says the death toll has risen by four, to 53.

March 29
Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, the doctor who first identified SARS as a "mystery illness" dies of the disease in Thailand.

Ontario health officials say there are about 100 probable and suspect cases of SARS across the province with the majority in the Greater Toronto Area.

Ottawa says it will put a system in place over the weekend designed to stop the illness from spreading to other countries from Canada's largest airport - Pearson International in Toronto.

It will include assessments of passengers who may be ill.

Australia advises its citizens to reconsider travelling to Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Vietnam. Taiwan says its number of SARS cases has risen from 10 to 12. Officials handed out 100,000 free surgical masks to travellers and employees at its main international airport, which was being disinfected.

March 30
Ontario health officials tell a news conference that another person has died of SARS on March 28. The latest victim had a direct connection with the first person who died from the virus at Scarborough Grace Hospital, and was then transferred to York Central Hospital in Richmond Hill, near Toronto.

CBC News Indepth SARS

 

[occupied]

Hemorrhagic fevers are different than respiratory illnesses. Ebola is scary as hell for sure but actions should match the threat and not be based on how we would fight an airborne illness.

 

[tinydancer]

Hemorrhagic fevers are different than respiratory illnesses. Ebola is scary as hell for sure but actions should match the threat and not be based on how we would fight an airborne illness.

Agreed. By no means would I dream of commenting on the actions that have to be taken by any medical community.

I'm only pointing out the economic and emotional toll a highly communicable disease takes on a city and its people.

For example simple things become a potential matter of high risk.

On any normal day if one's child takes a header off the monkey bars you zip right on over to the local ER to make sure they don't have a concussion.

All of a sudden with SARS for example parents are weighing the pros and cons of showing up at the ER with the cons being that they could catch the disease.

Or all of a sudden your workplace was shut down because some bozo who was supposed to be quarantined comes into work and your plant is closed. This truly happened.

People are thrown out of work with no paychecks. Restaurants went bankrupt. Toronto for quite a while turned into ghost town.

The tourism industry just got devastated. Fear has a price. And its an expensive price tag.

Found it.

April 9, 2003
Health officials place 197 employees at a Hewlett-Packard plant in Markham Ont. under quarantine after a worker defied his quarantine and showed up for work showing SARS symptoms.

CBC News Indepth SARS

 

[occupied]

From what I have heard, an Ebola victim who is contagious is so visibly sick that you wouldn't want to touch them and looks nothing like a cold or flu. Blood red eyes, maybe blood from nose, bloody diarrhea, sweating like hell, stumbling and dizzy. We in the western world have little experience with such things unless you have been unfortunate enough to witness a pet dog dying of parvo.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Even if you hadn't been exposed when they started to shut down hospitals women were quarantined with their newborn babies.

Sons and daughters were denied entry to hospitals to be with dying parents. Businesses were shut down. Money was lost hand over fist for Toronto businesses.

Tourists were afraid to come. Conventions were cancelled. People were on edge everywhere. Many wore masks even to Blue Jays games.

Fear was palpable. It got to the point that our Prime Minister flew in from Ottawa to eat at a Chinese restaurant to show people that they could still go out to eat.

Didn't convince many. I'm not putting this up to be a fear monger. Au contraire. Just trying to inform that if a serious outbreak hits where you live you better be prepared for some really weird times.

Here's the financial wrap. It really hurt the city.

You're blaming the people who aren't taking it seriously for the fact that too many people are taking way to seriously?

All of the fallout from SARS was due to fear - not the disease itself. The hysterics about it is what dealt that damage to Toronto, not SARS itself.

 

[tinydancer]

From what I have heard, an Ebola victim who is contagious is so visibly sick that you wouldn't want to touch them and looks nothing like a cold or flu. Blood red eyes, maybe blood from nose, bloody diarrhea, sweating like hell, stumbling and dizzy. We in the western world have little experience with such things unless you have been unfortunate enough to witness a pet dog dying of parvo.

I've seen parvo. Horrid.

Back to ebola. The medical community is really on it world wide. Kudos. Because they're putting their lives on the line working to corral this disease.

Learning as they go as well. I just read that when cured a man can carry the virus for up to 3 months in his semen. And there is concern about breast milk as well.

Bless their souls these front line warriors.

 

[tinydancer]

Even if you hadn't been exposed when they started to shut down hospitals women were quarantined with their newborn babies.

Sons and daughters were denied entry to hospitals to be with dying parents. Businesses were shut down. Money was lost hand over fist for Toronto businesses.

Tourists were afraid to come. Conventions were cancelled. People were on edge everywhere. Many wore masks even to Blue Jays games.

Fear was palpable. It got to the point that our Prime Minister flew in from Ottawa to eat at a Chinese restaurant to show people that they could still go out to eat.

Didn't convince many. I'm not putting this up to be a fear monger. Au contraire. Just trying to inform that if a serious outbreak hits where you live you better be prepared for some really weird times.

Here's the financial wrap. It really hurt the city.

You're blaming the people who aren't taking it seriously for the fact that too many people are taking way to seriously?

All of the fallout from SARS was due to fear - not the disease itself. The hysterics about it is what dealt that damage to Toronto, not SARS itself.

I

Even if you hadn't been exposed when they started to shut down hospitals women were quarantined with their newborn babies.

Sons and daughters were denied entry to hospitals to be with dying parents. Businesses were shut down. Money was lost hand over fist for Toronto businesses.

Tourists were afraid to come. Conventions were cancelled. People were on edge everywhere. Many wore masks even to Blue Jays games.

Fear was palpable. It got to the point that our Prime Minister flew in from Ottawa to eat at a Chinese restaurant to show people that they could still go out to eat.

Didn't convince many. I'm not putting this up to be a fear monger. Au contraire. Just trying to inform that if a serious outbreak hits where you live you better be prepared for some really weird times.

Here's the financial wrap. It really hurt the city.

You're blaming the people who aren't taking it seriously for the fact that too many people are taking way to seriously?

All of the fallout from SARS was due to fear - not the disease itself. The hysterics about it is what dealt that damage to Toronto, not SARS itself.

It was a very tense time and the city unfortunately paid a price for a nonchalant approach to SARS in the beginning.

And "end of the worlders" aside it was prudent to be fearful and not throwing caution to the wind.

True fools were out there breaking the quarantines on a regular basis which upped edginess of the population.

Hospitals were closing. Some hospitals wouldn't even let anyone visit the critically ill. Some did but with great precaution.

People didn't panic. They were just very very cautious. And it was because of a sensible fear that drove that caution individuals really took to heart everything they were told about how to conduct themselves.

That's what saved everyone from a full blown epidemic. But the city paid a price for SARS.

 

[NYcarbineer]

The high economic cost related to SARS was caused by the overreaction.

 

[Ravi]

So wait, Toronto overreacted so we should do the same?

 

[NYcarbineer]

So wait, Toronto overreacted so we should do the same?

That was my point. The economic cost resulted from the hysteria, not from taking SARS too lightly. SARs was a respiratory infection that had (or has, I guess) about a 1% death rate. They actually say officially that it's a 3% death rate but those figures are based only on cases severe enough to have sought treatment.

 

[tinydancer]

The high economic cost related to SARS was caused by the overreaction.

No. If you go to the link provided in my second post which shows the timeline of how SARS travelled and affected us you would understand instantly that if the gravity of the virus had been recognized in the beginning and taken for deadly serious, we wouldn't have faced the dire consequences of a la dee da attitude of "oh it won't be so bad" .

 

[tinydancer]

So wait, Toronto overreacted so we should do the same?

That was my point. The economic cost resulted from the hysteria, not from taking SARS too lightly. SARs was a respiratory infection that had (or has, I guess) about a 1% death rate. They actually say officially that it's a 3% death rate but those figures are based only on cases severe enough to have sought treatment.

There was no hysteria.

 

[tinydancer]

Look I almost bazooka barfed yesterday when I read that no one from any agency went to that man's apartment to collect his belongings. No one even showed up till Wednesday to quarantine anyone.

That the daughter ran out and bought lysol and clorox to disinfect the apartment.

THIS is what I am talking about. If those in the medical and emergency response teams do not get on this right away and take this for the deadly serious situation it is this will balloon into the nightmare we had in Toronto.

The whole "it's ok don't panic" leads people to think of ebola as another flu and makes them lazy.

You tell people we have a real problem on our hands. You tell people don't come into the ER's willy nilly. You properly prepare any and every medical worker to be on the lookout YESTERDAY.

Instill fear now. That way you can nip it in the bud.

 

[ShootSpeeders]

Obama has let in millions of africans both legal and illegal. Who knows how many of them are infected with obola?. Best advice is to avoid all blacks.. Get your kids out of public schools.