Drawing the Lines: Danger and Risk in the Age of SARS

Abstract

The outbreak of SARS in the spring of 2003 was shocking for many reasons. It seemed to realize the threat that had been haunting public health professionals’ imaginations: that a new or re-emerging infectious disease could wreak havoc even in Western nations. And the havoc was measured in more than just mortality. The outbreak saw the resurrection of instruments long out of use, such as containment by quarantine and ‘social distance’ measures, and their social and economic costs were devastating for the healthy people who had to bear them.