2003-04-04 - 4:54 pm
A classmate told me today that a few kids from my school bought a stack of masks recommended for SARS (they sell them at the bookstore and I usually use them when I'm drawing with charcoal) and are currently sitting in lawn chairs outside the airport selling them for $10 a pop. Note, they cost about $1.30 each. Heh.
Whomever came up with that idea is brilliant! I mean, nothing like playing off the mass hysteria and panic that is spreading the country and making some extra cash. I bet they're making a fortune.
Now, that's not to say that there isn't a real health problem occuring in the country and that SARS is a joke in any way. I just think it's ridiculous to be overreacting so much as people have been (from what I've been seeing on the news and hearing from friends elsewhere in the country). It's good to take precausion when flying to major centres by wearing a mask on the plane but to boycott Chinese resturaunts? That's just dumb.
My printmaking instructor went to the doctor this afternoon, leaving class early, to get his flu checked out. He had said he had gone to a Chinese resturaunt about a week ago and started getting sick, and just wanted to be sure that it wasn't SARS. I know it's better to be safe than sorry but I bet these clinics are going to be overrun by people who have convinced themselves that they have the disease when really it's just a bit of sinus pressure.
You've got to stay level-headed in cases like these because the moment you start to think about the possibility of having SARS, the next thing you know you're part of the mass hysteria and you're duct taping your windows shut.
Oh wait, that's for a different crisis, isn't it? Heh.
