Tech:

I severely doubt your suppositions.

First, in order to make your claim stick, you need to show that the Canadian and American victims are chinese, which you have not. So it really is only a supposition until you show that. I find it interesting that you trot around in righteous indignation at the PC'ers when you have nothing but unsubstantiated belief to back you up... Isn't that what you are peeved at the PC'ers for?

There are no viruses that I am aware of that are 'race specific'. Usually when a population shows *comparative* lack of resistence to a disease (AmerIndians vs Euros and Smallpox, for example), its because the afflicted population in question has not already been selected by that particular disease. In other words, the reasons AmerInds died by the score from Smallpox is because the virus had not already ravaged their society previously, as it had the europeans who suffered, but not as bad.

The Native Americans had about the same collection of disease-resistant traits (nearly none) as pre-smallpox europeans. So they died in droves while the Euros only died in scores.

Additionally, the longer a virus ravages your particular area, the more likely you are to have 'weak' strains pass around the population and auto-immunize folks. Back before the invention of motorized transport and Sail, sick people didn't/couldn't really travel that far without generally dying, collapsing or turning back, and the travel times were so long that carriers tended to kill of their disease along the way. Hierarchical spread between landmasses for fast-acting pathogens was really not possible- only slow boundary spread was possible, which means most prehistoric pathogens stopped at geographic boundaries.

So the answer is that its not so much about 'characteristics unique to race', but rather what group of people got exposed when. That Race is NOT a meaningful GENETIC notion has nothing to do with PC and everything to do with good science.

Also, you have to take into account environmental factors and sub-populations WRT SARS. The disease in China spreads quick and widely and kills about 4-5%. The disease in Canada spreads usually in tight socail/physical clusters and kills upwards of 10%. Why? Because in china it is 'on-the-streets' affecting young and old alike. In Canada it hit the hospitals first, where it attacks the elderly and already weakened (note the ages on the canadian SARS deaths- did you actually look at this Tech-1? Or were you to hot to bray your nonsense?) You will see several in the 80's and 90's and very few young people.

So, I am willing to *believe* a racial link, but only if you demonstrate one. If you can't, then I will choose the best science I can get my hands on. The best science I can get my hands on tells me that race is not a meaningful genetic notion. If you want to call this PC, then go right ahead. You might as well call Relativity pseudoscience and Neutrons angels... Makes no difference to me.

Look, SARS is deadly. I don't think we are going to stop it, only slow it. Scientific American had a lovely piece on atypical, hub dominated, random graphs- what they were calling 'Scale Free Networks'. Looking at that piece and looking at the air-transprt, social and community comparisons and looking at thier data, its hard to believe that we will be able to stop SARS. If we can't, and if it is indeed as contagious as the common cold and the 5% death rate maintains- then we are looking at a massive die off. Worse, as health resources become strained (no pun intended), medical intervention in the pathology of the disease becomes impossible and the death rate will climb even higher- like 10%-20%. And, again, assuming as analogy to the common cold, EVERYONE will get this.

Jumping up and down and calling this a 'Chinese disease' will get us nowhere- unless you have proof, do you? No? Okay, then lets think as good empiricists and act as good rationalists and not spread dumb-ass half-backed suppositions around the population. Lets stay rational and calm and let the scientists and medical workers do their work. They may not be perfect, but they are what we got. Its a lot beter than Voodoo, Racism and supposition.

Davin L.