Thor Q. Mada

Under pressure from the major of Toronto, and the Canadian governement, the WHO took Toronto of the list. I never understood this. The major of Toronto cited commercial reasons for his outrage being on the WHO list. However as we have seen, epedimies don't care about political or commercial considerations. Nature is not benevolent or malicious to us it is just indifferent. The point is that the major of Bejing and several other Chinese officials were fired for the same cover-up. Something is wrong here.
That major of Toronto is either ruthless or an imbicile. In both cases he should not be the major. I couldn't believe when I saw the Canadian prime minister also jumping on this guy's bandwagon. What a bunch of egocentric woolies.

Sakpo

Heh, Mel Lastman (Toronto's mayor) is a total imbecile. He publically worried about the prospect of "being boiled in a pot" when he was set to visit Africa. Another time, when there was a Hells Angels rally in his town he went out and was photographed laughing, shaking hands, and accepting a "Support Hells Angels" shirt. He later claimed he didn't know that the Hells Angels were criminals. This is the same group that had been involved in a high profile gang war (including bombings killing outsiders, shootouts, etc), was murdering and intimidating journalists, etc. All of this was getting plenty of press coverage.

That said, it was his job to go out and fight the travel advisory. It posed a significant economic threat to Toronto. His job is to promote the interests of his city. If the travel advisory shouldn't have been lifted, blame the WHO.

Thor Q. Mada

Sakpo, you are right, World Health shouldn't be subject to pressure or worse yielding to it. But because of Toronto as a precedent, WHO also relaxed their conditions for taking HK of the list. We still had 4 new cases yesterday and we have every day 2 to 3 death! This is not acceptable. The masks are gone! They were either necessary or not. If the were necessary 3 weeks ago, they still are today.

Sakpo

SARS is also making a serious comeback in Toronto, it's been about 6 new cases a day for a little bit, according to the 6pm corporate news. Deaths have been lower (a 60 year old woman yesterday, sadly, but not several per day or anything close to that). As usualy, health is valued less than $$$.

Loren Pechtel

I don't see how he's an imbicile at all. It looked like SARS was under control there. They missed one, though.

LeftCoast

Is there anyone her who can comment on the situation in Toronto first hand? It looks like I'm going to be traveling there on business on 6/22-6/26. Should I pack a haz-mat suit?

Sakpo

Nothing first hand, but you ought to be fine. And patronize a Chinatown restraunt if you get the chance (seriously, they need it and they've been unfairly screwed over by this)!

FoE

The whole SARS thing aside, trust me - he is an imbecile. He's a wildly entertaining imbecile though. He's Canada's answer to Dan Quayle.

FoE

My folks and most of my friends live in TO and unless you're an asian with a cough you've got nothing to be concerned about. Apparently coughing asians make people feel a little shifty these days.

LeftCoast

Sakpo and FoE,

Thanks for the input - sounds about like what I expected, but a little first-hand info will do wonders to help calm my wife's fears.

Best Regards,
Denny