Comes from...

(Drum Roll Please)

Onboard Updates dated April 14, 2003.  In an article about SARS called 'Putting it into Perspective', they write:

Media reports throughout the world relative to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have caused undue anxiety.

Undue anxiety?  Perhaps if you are working a ground job in a cubicle.  But onboard an enclosed aluminum tube scooting through the air, with lots of people traveling from God-knows where, there is no such thing as undue anxiety about anything anymore.

The article also mentions that "as of April 8 this year, there have been no reported fatalities due to SARS in the United States."  While that is true, the World Health Organization also adds in their SARS epidemiology to date:

Cases continue to increase in the United States with 154 persons under investigation. US figures include probable and suspect cases. The US now reports limited transmission from patients to health care workers. No deaths have so far been reported from the US.

Bottom line: Yes, the media loves to blow things out of proportion---and on that point Onboard Updates is right on.  No question about that.  But there is no such thing as 'undue anxiety' when it comes to this.  As far as I'm concerned, if there was not a war happening with Iraq, the SARS story would be the most concerning event of the year.

There is good news, however, today straight from the WHO:

Canadian scientists working around the clock have completed full sequencing of the genome of the SARS virus. This is a major step forward that will boost the development of better diagnostic tests and underpin work on a vaccine.

The rapid sequencing of the SARS virus genome was facilitated by collaboration with numerous other scientists, also working non-stop, at laboratories in a WHO network set up in mid-March.

A PCR test, developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been shown to be ten times more sensitive than previous PCR tests for SARS. WHO experts hope that the test will be ready for roll out by the end of this week.