INDEPTH: SARS
Quotables
CBC News Online | April 25, 2003
"I think it's amazing that most people in Toronto are not wearing masks. I don't think they should be wearing masks. And I think it's terrific we haven't panicked,"
– Dr. Jay Keystone of the Centre of Travel and Tropical Medicine at the University of Toronto, April 21, 2003.
"I think we have to have a very big respect for Mother Nature. She's the ultimate bioterrorist."
– Dr. Richard Stanwick, medical officer of health for Vancouver Island, April 25, 2003.
"I think we're the scapegoat."
– Dr. Donald Low, head of microbiology at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, April 25, 2003.
"I am frankly disappointed with the WHO action. I'm just shaking my head here in amazement."
– Ontario Medical Commissioner, Colin D'Cunha, April 23, 2003.
"The government of Canada needs to be there in emergencies. That's why we have a national emergency protocol. And if ever there was a national emergency, certainly this epidemic is part of that."
– Canadian Heritage Minister and Liberal leadership hopeful Sheila Copps, April 23, 2003.
"At this point there is no information that would lead us to declare this a national emergency."
– Health Minister Anne McLellan, April 23, 2003.
"Am I sick? You're darn right I'm sick… I have never been more sick because I've never been so angry in my life."
"What I'm doing right here, right now, is sending out a message to this CDC group, whoever the hell they are," he said.
"Who? WHO, sorry. Well, who's the CDC? Oh. OK. The WHO. And the message I'm sure will reach them through you (is) that I dare them, I dare them, to be here tomorrow."
– Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman at a news conference, reacting to the WHO decision to impose a travel advisory on Toronto; April 23.
"WHO has a duty and a responsibility to all countries to provide the best advice for public health possible. We never compromise that."
– WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland, after telling Canada's Health Minister Anne McLellan the organization will not lift a travel advisory against non-essential travel to Toronto; April 24, 2003.
"Everywhere we went, you could feel something was wrong. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant (at Niagara Falls). They said a bus tour of 200 people had just cancelled. It felt like a ghost town. Toronto? I've been there eight times. Not the same. It felt like New York City after Sept. 11."
– Hartford tour leader Rose Marie DeRiso after returning from a three-day trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. As quoted in the Hartford Courant, April 25, 2003.
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