Notes from the SARS-panic bandwagon

It’s interesting to see how SARS has been portrayed in the media in recent weeks. You’d think there was a revival of the bubonic plague. According to AP, the Travel Industry Association of America reported a 55 percent decrease in international travel, especially to and from Asia, because of SARS.

So: Should we all stick our heads in the sand and stop traveling? I’d say travelers should simply pay more attention to the actual extent of the disease. Asia is a big continent, and SARS is only a problem in a few places. Here’s a report this week from a journalist friend in Bangkok:

“I went to the Foreign Correspondents Club last night to hear the executive director of the World Health Organization speak. They seem to be backtracking a bit, after having caused something amounting to global panic. A bit late to save thousands of tourism-related jobs here in Thailand, but he confirmed that people perceived the risk greater than it ever was and it’s had an ‘unnecessary economic impact’.

“He told us that SARS does not spread easily, nor by casual contact, and that it transmits at a lower rate than other infectious diseases — hey, that would have been useful information to give to the press at the beginning! And here’s an amazing statistic: One guy from the airline industry asked exactly how many transmissions of infection they estimate have been passed on board airplanes, given that in the six months since SARS appeared 200 million people have traveled by air. The WHO director said: 15 individuals, at most.

“Fifteen at most. FIFTEEN! The whole tourism industry is on its knees in this part of the world because of a less than 0.00001% infection rate. What is wrong with this picture?”

What’s wrong with the picture is that health authorities instinctively like to play things safe, and the mainstream news media loves a good international panic story. Hence, fear of SARS is disproportionate to actual SARS danger, and people are needlessly canceling their travels. Even to Thailand, which was never designated as a SARS problem area.

Rather than have breathless media generalizations filter reality for you, it’s better to check direct sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control, before you start scrapping your travel plans. After all, canceling a trip to Bangkok because of SARS deaths in Beijing is kind of like canceling a trip to Chicago because there’s a hurricane in Miami: It’s just bad logic.