We Are Their Meat: The Real Us vs. Them

A ballet class in Hong Kong in the spring of 2003.
Photo by Vincent Yu/Associated Press

On Tuesday night, TV Ontario premiered a new series called The Virus Empire. The first episode, called "Silent Killers," examined the modus operandi of the SARS virus, painfully familiar to anyone living in Toronto in 2003. Fascinating though the behaviour of these creatures is—or are they even creatures? Scientists are still arguing over whether they are even alive, and Wikipedia calls them "infectious agents"—the key message of the episode seemed not to be "better stock up on masks and Purell," but rather that humans had better smarten up and realize that if we are able to overcome this common enemy when the promised pandemic strikes, it will only be through co-operation and transparency, neither of which are plentiful in these paranoid and protectionist times.


In "Silent Killers," Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg is quoted as saying, "The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance on the planet is the virus. They are looking for food; we are their meat." The program traces the path of the 2003 killer as SARS is rapidly dispersed throughout Europe and North America while the World Health Organization (WHO) and Atlanta's Centres for Disease Control (CDC) scramble to identify the predator and protect the prey. It re-enacts the early days of the outbreak at the Metropole hotel in Hong Kong, where Dr. Liu, Patient Zero, first arrived from China's Guangdong province in February, 2003. A handful of travellers ride in the elevator with the good doctor, then over the next few days, they carry the pathogen worldwide.

The show also relates the actions of the authorities in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 15, as they are alerted to the presence of an ill passenger on an incoming Singapore Airlines plane. Immediate quarantine of all 250 passengers on touchdown entirely prevents the entry of the virus into Germany. The traveller, also a doctor, had been treating one of the original flight attendants infected by Patient Zero in Hong Kong. By the time the outbreak is contained that summer, it will be discovered that fully 50% of reported cases internationally can be traced back to Dr. Liu.






The SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV).


In April, the WHO manages to convince 13 high-security labs worldwide, normally fierce scientific competitors, to sacrifice individual credit in order to tackle deconstructing the SARS genome with the goal of developing an effective test for the infection. This is accomplished in short order—less than a month—via co-operation and marathon teleconferencing sessions. The WHO's success at overcoming the labs' usual proprietary interests and competitiveness essentially provides the means to halt the outbreak within another three months.
As it has done before, the People's Republic of China delayed informing the international community or requesting assistance in the early days of the outbreak in November 2002, inactions that directly resulted in widespread transmission. And as has happened before, such self-interest ultimately backfires when the situation that has prompted such defensiveness cannot be effectively contained, resulting in many needless deaths before international help is requested and received. Whether it's floods, earthquakes, or epidemics, China's leaders just never seem to grasp this cause and effect relationship.

But humans are inclined that way. We can all be protectionist, closing ranks and building walls to keep "them" out. "They" are a fearsome threat, indeed, and range from the immigrant neighbours cooking their "smelly" delicacies to actual aliens—and all those foreign evildoers in between. But there is no real "them"; we are all in this together, as the virologists keep trying to explain. As Mike Ryan, one of the WHO SARS team members puts it, "Nature is the main bioterrorist."

And even the viruses aren't "them"! According to the virologists in The Virus Empire, one-tenth of our genes are the residue of ancient retroviruses. Viruses are literally a part of us—and every other living organism—and as such are just another environmental challenge that can only be effectively faced together. On the scale of such things, SARS was a weakling, quickly captured and neutralized. According to the experts at the CDC, the next major threat is likely to come from a mutated influenza virus, possibly a variant of the bird flu.

SARS, H1N1, and the next pandemic have many lessons to teach us: about co-operation, about asking for help, about the ultimate equality and vulnerability of all of us. We don't have to live our lives behind masks if we can come to terms with the myth of the bogeymen, the other, "them." Ryan asks, "Is our security at some nominal border, or is our security the health of our population?"



Masked citizens in Hong Kong during the 2003 SARS outbreak.
Photo by jlatvels


We were lucky with SARS. It seems we will be lucky with H1N1, this year's threat. But can we learn our lessons before we find ourselves riding in that hotel elevator with the Big One?