When SARS appeared last year, Chinese people in hard-hit cities panicked, clearing shop shelves of food and medicine, avoiding public places and even fleeing for the countryside to avoid the disease.
But yesterday, a day after China confirmed its first new SARS case since a world epidemic was declared over in July, few people on the streets of Beijing seemed worried about the spectre of a new outbreak.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Many people expressed faith in the government, which at first tried to cover up the outbreak early last year.
"It's not scary at all," said Xia Huiyuan, 43, who has shined shoes in a five-star hotel for seven years and only experienced what he said was a slight drop in business during last year's outbreak.
"The detection mechanisms are pretty complete. And stopping this disease is a long-term project, not a short-term deal," he said.
China confirmed on Monday that a a 32-year-old television producer in the southern city of Guangzhou had severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Experts believe the flu-like disease emerged in southern China in late 2002 before spreading to almost 30 countries, infecting about 8,000 people and killing nearly 800, about 300 of them in China.
When the disease was at its height, virtually everyone in hard-hit Chinese cities wore surgical masks in public. Experts say the disease is spread by droplets in coughs and sneezes.
In Beijing yesterday, there were almost no masks to be seen.
Zhu Xingtao, a 38-year-old businessman flying to Guangzhou said the government appeared to have things in hand.
"I don't really think it's a SARS outbreak," Zhu said. "It may just be one or two cases. The government has a system to keep everything under control."
Others said public awareness would keep the disease in check, even if more cases did crop up.
"I don't think SARS this year will be as serious as last year because people all know its danger," said kingdergarten teacher Sun Jing.
Xiao Ren, a 32-year-old philosophy student who was also flying to Guangzhou yesterday, said garlic was the ticket to blocking the virus.
"I've never been afraid of SARS because I eat a lot of garlic. I have my own mask on the inside so I don't need one on the outside," he said.
But bad memories die hard.
From the driver's seat of a taxi that smelled of freshly applied disinfectant, Niu Lijun, 42, recalled the toll SARS took on his business during its peak from late April to early June.
"For about a month, business was so bad that I couldn't even earn enough money to pay half the fee to rent the cab. I had to dip into my savings," he said. The fee is the equivalent of about US$20 a day.
"Those Guangdong people will blindly eat anything," he said, referring to suspicion the virus jumped to people from civet cats, which are a delicacy in China's south.
"But one case isn't a problem," he said. "If there are a number of cases, though, then it will be a hassle."
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