Fear Factor

With a 93% recovery rate in Singapore, why are Singaporeans so afraid of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)?

I am not one of the 3 out of 4 Singaporeans who is afraid of being exposed to SARS. I believe you can never tell who can be sitting beside you in the MRT or bus.

It is the fear of the uncertainty that we are not used to. Walk into the MRT station and there is the real time system telling passengers when the next train is arriving; enter a bank or clinic and wait for your Q number to flash across the panel. Macdonald guarantees you a one minute turnaround time for your order, failing which, you will get a complimentary apple pie.

Forget about wishing for a headline that screams "SARS Will Be Eradicated in 5 Days time!". It will be a while before we see the shadows of SARS, as WHO gave an optimistic estimate of one year for a vaccine to be found. You can choose to see it as a black hole, with everything at best, an intelligent deduction. The incubation period has been stretched from the initial 2-7 days to 10 days and day by day, new scenarios have prompted scientists to speculate new theories of spreading: the latest being transmission by cockroaches. As a result, we are still spooked by every cough, sneeze, the imprint on the lift button, the door handle and even the openly displayed Yong Tau Fu ingredients at the hawker centre.

Until the day when we can withhold ourselves from looking at the government for a magic solution, and get used to a little bit of uncertainty as a mode of living, SARS will continue to invoke fear and disrupt our everyday lives.