SARS-picious activities

{ WHO report on SARS | S’pore Health Ministry homepage }
During our lunch break today we made a visit to the newly-renovated NTUC along Tanjong Pagar Road. It was fairly crowded. I haven’t seen so many people in Singapore for the last week or two!
While weaving in between the aisles, I noticed a little boy throwing a tantrum and pulling his dad’s arm. I was near enough to hear what he was complaining about.
“No mask?! Dad-deee I wan’ a mask!” He sounded quite unhappy and a little frightened.
The father was unmoved: “Here got no more mask. Dad-dee will get one from the office tomorrow okay?”
I moved away from them and eventually found myself at the toiletries section. There I noticed that almost all the bottles of Dettol wash were sold out.
After which, I noticed a chemist’s deeper inside the supermarket. A sign was placed near the cash register: ‘Sorry face mask out of stock’.
A colleague mused, “Hmm. Should I buy some Vitamin C?”

Tonight, in fact, my father was doing his rounds at NUH, where a SARS patient died recently. So if you’re really nervous, you shouldn’t be reading this post, because you might just catch it from your eyeballs. Ohh, too late.
Myth #1: Wear a surgical mask!
Those surgical masks aren’t 100% foolproof. The folks at TTS wear gas masks, the ones that make you breathe really hard and sound like Darth Vader. My uncle (another doctor) tells me the German hospitals require the wearing of ‘space suits’, which are even better. But nobody’s complaining. Clinics and chemists have made a killing.
Well all right, the flimsy white things do reduce the chances of inhaling the virus, but they’re not completely impervious and shouldn’t give you a false sense of security. ‘Anyone within 5 feet of you is a possible infector’, said Dad, in an interview this evening over the dinner table.
Myth #2: Stock up on anti-bacterial wash and antibiotics!
Anyone who studied Biology can tell you that SARS is a virus not a bacteria, and therefore the rules of combat do not apply. Granted, anti-bacterial agents will improve the level of hygiene and thus lower the risk of you falling ill in general. However while they remove more bacteria than normal soap, the figure isn’t close to 100%. Once again: False sense of security.
My dad says, chlorine’s the best. Wash the floor with it. Kills everything, good and bad.
A year or two ago, the five doctors in my family discussed, over the dinner table, how many other doctors in Singapore have over-prescribed patients with super drugs that have the short term effect of, happily, wiping out the bugs pronto. However because of this, viruses have adapted and mutated, re-manifesting themselves in the form of ‘super bugs’ which are much harder to remedy.
I for one, hardly take medicine. I’m too lazy to see a proper General Practitioner, and dad comes home so late that I seldom get the medicine in time, if at all. But because my own antibodies have been working overtime most of my life, I only took one day’s leave from junior college (in 2 years), one day of sick leave from my previous job (1 year) and ditto for my present job (1.5 years) so far. I refuse to be a hypochondriac.
Myth #3: Eat red beans! Don’t shop at Isetan! etc.
I heard about the rumours and they’re plain silly. But the supermarkets are happy, because they’ve run out of red beans. The shopping centres aren’t.
I mean, if you’re really scared, don’t even bother going to crowded places with a surgical mask. Don’t go out, period! Eat well, rest well, keep your immune system healthy. And pray.