I still maintain that Ebola was never a real threat to the western world. It's just too hard to spread. SARS on the other hand, is almost the perfect civilization-killer, if it weren't for its meager kill ratio (15%, mostly the elderly).

Hanta virus is an interesting little bug. It's a lot like Ebola, in that its a viral hemorhagic fever. Sin Nombre (one variant) has a kill ratio of around 50%, and seems to prefer adult white males. No known vaccine. Native to North America. The saving grace is that it seems to be spread only by contact with rodents or their droppings, not human-to-human contact. But it could always mutate :)

Fer godssake, I'm not scared of Ebola because I think it'll kill everyone. I'm scared of Ebola because I think it will kill me. Screw the Western world, if I get Ebola, I'm the one who'll die.

Also, it's crafty.

But Wonko, now what will you have to lay awake and worry about nights? What deep secret fear will stay your hand as you reach for the doorknob each morning, causing that brief hesitation as you gather your courage and prepare to expose your being to the unknown, never knowing whether an ebola-laden monkey might be lurking in the porch shadows waiting to pelt you with pathologically polluted primate poop?

Perhaps the fear of alliteration? :)

Perhaps that. :-) Although it's not a grave danger of any sort, because it mostly happens when I stay up all night writing a research paper, and I try very hard not to do that too often...

I do recall Wonko confessing once that he an irrational fear of clowns. Maybe he can build on that one, now that ebola may be out of the running.

Not a fear of clowns, just an intense hatred.

I think SARS would be perfect for America. Eliminate our elderly and we won't have a social security problem anymore :-)

Uh-huh. I bet it was a girly scream, Mulder.









Fangirl powers survive the test of time and later show crappiness!

I'm sure he suffers from all the usual human fears, fear of criticizm, irrelevance, embarrassment, and all those icky dreams about missing the final exam for a class you forgot to attend all semester and winding up in the wrong classroom without any pants on... er, not that I've ever ever had that dream of course.

And so many of our elderly live in rest homes, which is like the ideal situation for spreading SARS. Communal dining areas, close quarters with shared ventilation, a fair number of people with enough health problems that SARS might go unnoticed until it's too late.

My little sister worked in a rest home as a waitress for a while. While she was there, they had some minor viral epidemic that threatened to kill off half the residents. IIRC, my sister got pretty sick herself. I don't think anyone died, but still, the possibility is there.

And of course, my little sister was in highschool at the time. So if she had picked up anything terribly virulant in the rest home, she probably would have spread it to other students, or vice versa.

Good grief, you too? Maybe it's genetic!