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SARS rumors rampant on Chinese social networks today

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  1. #41

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    Quote Originally Posted by penguinsix:
    Getting quite a few posts in my stream about an alleged SARS outbreak in Hebei. Chinese officials are denying it at the moment but it's starting to attract attention outside of Asia now.

    Good rundown of the stories on the FluTracker site:

    SARS outbreak in China a rumor: says (Taiwan) CDC - FluTrackers

    Anyone seeing similar in their news feeds? (actually, how many geoexpat'ers have a weibo account anyway I wonder)

    This started mid week on Twitter and I have had people in the States message me asking if things were ok in HK. Most people I know in Beijing & Shanghai insist that its rumors and nothing else.

  2. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by elle:
    Back in 2003 Hong Kong didn't really close down, it was more like a slow down...
    Mr Elle and I went about our daily life as usual - with a few exceptions:
    - I always got a seat on the bus or the MTR (if not, coughing a bit got me a seat rather quickly )
    - we spent one fabulous weekend at the Peninsula and one at the Intercontinental for very little money (the hotel's occupancy rate was less than 10%, thus they offered special rates for Hong Kong residents)
    - we didn't have to make reservations when we wanted to go to Yung Kee (or any other famous/popular restaurant)
    - we were able to buy a very nice place to live for about 40% of the current bank evaluation
    - business trips to China were a bit of a challenge, many flight got cancelled and people coming from Hong Kong were not exactly welcome in the hotels (in Shanghai we were put onto special floors and neighbourhood committees insisted in taking our temperature and keeping track of our whereabouts)
    I also remember being on a China Eastern Airline flight to Shanghai - the flight attendants insisted in taking our temperature and writing it down on the passenger list (with seat number). When I inquired how it was possible that my temperature was only 32C I was told that they 'adjusted' the thermomether a bit to make sure nobody had a temperature higher than 37C
    Sarcasm aside, the people most affected by SARS were the frontline medical staff in the hospitals - many of them got infected and quite a number of them died. It didn't help that Beijing did not amit to the SARS outbreak in China...
    we were affected a LOT by SARS... at the time, hubby was a househusband, i was the sole breadwinner. i earned my living by tutoring privately.

    i collected my $ at the beginning of the month for the rest of the month. i collected about 1/2 of my march fees, at which time, parents started to freak out. i then had no lessons from mid-march until early june! because parents had paid fees in march, i owed them lessons. i didn't collect any new fees until july!

    it was a horrible time. granted, none of us were sick or dying, but we were basically stuck in our flat day in, day out. we couldn't afford to leave discovery bay, not even by bus. we lived off of noodles for months. i don't even remember how we managed to pay our rent.

    financially, it set us back years, because we were playing catch up with all of our bills for months, if not longer.

  3. #43

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    The only reason why HK Island and Kowloon streets were empty was because everyone kept coming to Sai Kung!

    My village, normally isolated and unknown to most of HK was swamped by coachloads of people, seeking 'fresh air' and a chance to get away from everyone else.

    Yeah, right.

    dear giant likes this.

  4. #44

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    Quote Originally Posted by bsh:
    The only reason why HK Island and Kowloon streets were empty was because everyone kept coming to Sai Kung!

    My village, normally isolated and unknown to most of HK was swamped by coachloads of people, seeking 'fresh air' and a chance to get away from everyone else.

    Yeah, right.
    you sure they weren't the folks from Amoy Garden? they were shipped to sai kung country park to isolate and quarantine them.
    dear giant likes this.

  5. #45

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    yes, carang is correct, the Amoy resident where, for part of them, re-allocated to Lady Mac Lehose....hence the surge in Sai Kung...

    dear giant likes this.

  6. #46

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    Quote Originally Posted by dear giant:
    Wasn't the biggest cluster of SARS victims comprised of people living in a particular building where the sewage pipes (bolted onto the outside of the building, naturally) rusted through in one or more spots[/URL]
    I seem to remember photos in Apple Daily or similar of the pipes being on the inside of the building but that may not have been Amoy Gardens.

    Although wasn't there one theory that there was a crack in a sewage pipe on a low floor resulting in a fine mist of sewage. This was then wafted up in one of those semi encloses internal light columns which acted as Chimney.

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