So what is your take on this whole SARS stuff? As you are well aware the 2003 WWC will be held in China this fall and I do believe that is where this thing originated right? What precautions can teams take this fall to prevent from catching that crap? Maybe you should be the USWNT doctor?
Well, I am not Dr. Mike, but I have a pretty good handle on what is going on. The outbreak is concentrated in the southern province of Guangdong (the one opposite Hong Kong). WHO doctors have just been allowed to enter so hopefully we will get some concrete information in the hear future. If I remember correctly, the capital of Guangdong (Guangzhou) is one of the scheduled venues. In most of the rest of the country, it isn't a major concern (at this time).
This is probably too early to pose this idea, but I amstarting to wonder about the risk of a mandatory quarantine. It happened with a national rugby side (both women's and men's) in response to SARS. Should be an interesting time leading up to the WWC.
Just a brief note... I'm very busy, and will do a longer note later. We are getting LOTS of info on this. It is clearly a respiratory splread illness, low fatality rate in healthy people, but very hard to protect yourself against. Ludahai's note is correct. There will be lot more info in another 10 days or so, when the WHO teams has been allowed to really look closely at the mainland China situation. Right now the onoy thin one can do is either isolate patients,m or wear a properly fitting N-95 mask, which is a lot more high tech than a plain surgical mask. Go to www.cdc.gov and follow the links to SARS and you will get a lot of detailed info.
The Mighty Midget milbrett had just posted this article in the KK thread: SARS epidemic puts China Women's World Cup in jeopardy April 7, 2003 By Jamie Trecker SportsTicker Contributing Editor
I have a baaad feeling about this I hope it will be under control within months, but I doubt it. Why the hell did it go to China again in such a short period in the first place??? Why not England? They have a good women's league.
I don't see any prospect of "controlling" SARS in China. Our best hope is individual protection through isolation, rigorous handwashing and disinfection, and masks. This is going to be hard because right now there is no way to determine who is infectious, and for how long. There will not be even a prototype vaccine for at least a year, and it will then take about 2 more years to do the field testing necessary for licensure.
isn't there just one venue that is too close to the outbreak area? maybe we can just move that one venue somewhere else and quarantine the part of the country where the outbreak is
A vaccine can be made once they are sure that they have the coronavirus which is responsible. There are two basic ways to do it. First they can kill the virus, in such a way as to preserve its major surface antigens. This is tricky, and will yeild a vaccine which is of rather short-lived protection. Second is to put the virus through many many passages on various tissues, and/or deleting some genes from it, and hoping that you then have an attenuated live virus. The degree of attenuation must then be proven via animal and ultimately human volunteeer studies. Such a vaccine generally takes a lot longer to develop, but will be more protective and particulry give more long-lasting protection.
From US Soccer: Draw Postponed for 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China Hey Dr. Mike...you should tell FIFA to have the 2003 WWC in Idaho. We are pretty disease free up here.
That depends on if one considers mental health, i.e. para-military mentality, as a disease, does it not? Is not Idaho #2 in total para-military enclaves? Or are they going for #1.
Oh heck, I can forgive the presence of paramilitary enclaves. Boise State's got BLUE TURF for cryin' out loud!!!!! How kewl is that?!!?!?!?!?!?!?! I'd swing over to BSU from Pittsburgh, PA for that!!!! http://www.boisestate.edu BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY, HOME OF BRONCO SOCCER AND THE 2003 WOMEN'S WORLD CUP, IF FOOTIE MAN HAS SOMETHIN' TO SAY ABOUT IT!!!!
Unfortuantely, it has now spread through much of the country. The Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (on the Mongolian border) just reported its first death due to SARS. Have the world cup here in Taiwan! The disease has been contained here (thus far *Michael crosses his fingers*)
Hey everybody, I think that the World Cup may stay in China because Canadian scientist have just found something that could help them find what this disease is all about. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/04/12/sars_code030412
I seriously hope that the WWC is not cancelled or postponed; I'm hoping the attention it will receive will help out the WUSA.
Here's another article: http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/041403_news_sars.shtml BUT... with it being so close to the WC do you think they'll chance it? I'm not so sure. And China reported today that another 4 people have died from it. I don't know if they'll postpone it or cancel it if they can come up with a place to host it. I know Canada has been brought up but they're the hardest hit country outside of Asia so I don't see them getting it. Hmmm.
Actually the most likely alternate country is Australia. They have very high marks for their Olympic hosting. They have an infrastructure that is pretty much in place. They are NOT one of the favorites so the home field advantage will not skew the results too much. They have not made any of the major soccer powers mad, lately. Travel to/from is simple for everyone, not short but simple. They are a mixed culture society so everyone will pretty much be on equal footing. They are already qualified so the "Host" qualifying spot can still go to China. If it must be moved Australia is the best/most obvious choice.
Australia would be a good venue (great stadia too). The genetic sequencing of the virus (1) is a "first draft", (2) will quickly lead to a good diagnostic test, but (3) will not move either a treatment or a vaccine along very much. Anti-viral medications are notoriously poor and have lots of side effects. The best thing is still to avoid the virus, and in sparsely populated Australia, that would be relatively easy.
Since the TV contract is with the country's soccer federation then YES it would change the TV coverage. Of course there would be some form of negotiations and I am fairly sure that Australia’s fed and China's would share the revenue. But the production costs would al be Australia's so they would have to get a larger chunk of the revenue. There would have to be a scramble to make it all work and they cannot wait too long without getting started or things that need to get done will not be done and the WWC will have problems which would hurt women’s soccer. I would say that a final decision will need to be made within 30-45 days or there will not be enough time to get everything set.; venues, hotels, media credentials, travel reservations, and all the other little things that make for a successful tournament. Also do not forget the draw MUST be done before the teams can even start booking hotels and arranging travel so they will know where they need to be and when. Number of fields and location can have an effect on the draw as well so there is a bit of time pressure to get the draw done ASAP and available fields will have to be determined before the draw can be done. Actually I REALLY hope it does not have to be moved. The "potential" for something to go wrong is greatly increased if people are rushed and if something major goes wrong women's soccer could be severely, maybe irreparably, injured.