Face-Off: Should universities ban students from SARS-infected areas?

Officials at UC Berkeley recently lifted the ban on students
from SARS infected areas, but is that necessarily safe?

“SARS took us by surprise,” writes Melissa Hinebauch
of Newsweek in a May 12 column regarding her experiences as an
American expatriate in Singapore, “I even had to cancel my
daughter’s birthday party because none of her friends’
parents would let them attend. That was probably for the best
anyway ““ security officers stationed at the driveway of our
apartment building were stopping everyone, even cabdrivers, to take
their temperature.”

As Hinebauch explains, an atmosphere of fear and paranoia has
emerged in the recent months since the SARS epidemic began,
rendering culturally rich Asian countries such as China, Singapore
and Taiwan “scary” places to visit. Living in the
states, we obviously have to take reports from the East with a
grain of salt. Though, having also lived as an expatriate in
Singapore for seven years, I have no doubts about the overwhelming
sense of fear that must now permeate the humid South East Asian
air. Considering this, the UC should uphold a ban on students from
SARS-affected regions until the international frenzy dies down.

As long as media reports from SARS-affected regions continue to
employ terms like “killer-virus,” and as long as the
death toll continues to slowly, but surely, rise, it’s best
to minimize our chances of bringing SARS fatalities to the
states.

It isn’t even that there’s a high probability of
importing the disease via some unwitting exchange student. However,
the risk is still present, and coupled with the looming fear
fostered by reports from Asia, it’s a risk better not
taken.

Hinebauch recounts her dining experience: “When a woman at
a nearby table coughed, the other patrons stopped their
conversations and looked at her in horror. It made me wonder
whether our paranoia has won out over common sense,” If an
advanced international hub such as Singapore can fall prey to such
fear over a reported 25 SARS deaths, what would happen here at the
UC?

With the knowledge that students from SARS-affected China and
Hong Kong are “running loose” on campus, it’s
possible that many students could get very nervous.

Think of the close quartering in the residence halls ““
three students packed like sardines into a 10 by 10 dorm room,
sharing showers, toilets and sinks. Now think of what will happen
if just one student happens to be carrying SARS. It’s a
pretty scary picture. I’m not suggesting that anything like
this is going to happen, or that it is even likely to happen, but
it can. As long as the possibility exists, reinforced by
nerve-wracking media reports, there’s no reason the
international frenzy couldn’t turn into a campus one.
Hinebauch’s portrait of the paranoid restaurant patrons could
occur right here at Rieber Hall.

Canceling some of our EAP programs will result in an
exacerbation of the money pinch the UC is already dealing with, but
continuing them is not worth the psychological stress students will
undoubtedly face should these programs continue.

A college campus is already a pretty stressful place to live in.
Throw in one of the scariest and most transmittable diseases since
the Black Plague, and we could have ourselves quite a problem.

Melissa Hinebauch, after coming to the states for her annual
summer vacation, said, “We’re slowly adjusting to life
without SARS. It has been a relief to put away the disinfectant
wipes, the face masks and the fear, at least until we go home
again.”

Hinebauch has retreated to a safe haven. Let’s try to make
sure it stays that way.

Dang is a third-year, political science student. E-mail him at
ndang@media.ucla.edu.

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