SARS Epidemical Analysis

SARS, which stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome, is an epidemic that affected people worldwide. Of the 8,098 people that became infected, more than seven hundred died (CDC). The outbreak of SARS initially broke out in Guangdong Province in November of 2002 and was contained in June of 2003. The symptoms of SARS include high fever, headaches, and cough, and is spread by respiratory droplets (Thompson 2014). At the time, leading laboratories could not find an antiviral or antibiotic drug that could successfully respond to the illness. As a result, the SARS virus outbreak became a global public health concern. In the case of China, culture and politics play a major role in governmental actions. Erik Eckholm’s piece from a New York Times article, The SARS Epidemic: Epidemic, criticizes China’s admission of its failure to publicly release the accurate number of SARS cases. Lack of political trust, increasing concerns for May Day travelling, and secrecy to hide the correct number of cases because military hospitals were excluded Both the health minister and mayor of Beijing were dismissed as a …show more content…
Elkholm’s article neither properly addresses these issues, not does he give credit to China’s turnover in its campaign to protect its citizens from SARS later on. As Marta Hanson mentioned in Conceptual Blind Spots, Media Blindfolds, the media can distort and blind fold its watchers and readers that “overlook, ignore, or consciously disregard facts, situations, and even histories that do not fit [its] dominant narrative of what is true, relevant, and newsworthy.” The power of journalism and media can effectively panic or calm its audience through the information the author chooses to release, which influence individual and globular