SARS conference

March 12, 2003.  10 years to the day when the WHO issued a global alert for SARS.  The School of Public Health hosted a conference to reflect on what had happened 10 years ago with sessions on health policy, clinical information, and personal stories.  I was particularly intrigued by the personal stories and accounts from practitioners who were part of that challenging time in HK history.  It was a nice touch to invite people to share their experiences.

I guess you can say this is the group of who's who in the SARS crisis

This conference was covered by many media outlets and some panelists were interviewed afterwards

I talked to one of mom's students, who worked at the SARS ward at United Christian Hospital, and one of mom's colleagues, who was in charge of staffing nurses at the hospital, about their SARS experience.  They, and many others, are the true unsung heroes of SARS in HK.  They didn't get their pictures taken.  No one hosted dinners in their honor.  And when talking to these two aunties, it was clear to me that they weren't really in any mood to brag about things they did or relay stories from that time.  Because it was tough on them physically and mentally.  They would say that they were just doing their jobs and would rather leave things in the past.