Dear forum friends A peal of plink broke through the stillness and silence of the night. I was awoken by it after I had a look at the clock on the wall,it was 2 a.m. who is it?-- a call ringing at this time usually means something emergent happened. My hubby picked up the handset. He told me, then, he had been selected to the front line of anti-SARS ,as one member of a 500 people team organized by the city government for finding and confirming the suspected SARS case and migrant workers who came from SARS serious plague spots ,such as Beijing, Inner Mongolia etc. and was going to set off at 7 a.m. in the morning. I could not continue to sleep as of that time that night. When it dawned , I urged him again and again” wear your mouth mask,” “wash hands 30 seconds each time”. “Speak with anyone above 3 metres away or more”….He smiled at me, said ”don’t worry, now that our government decided to organize this team, it will get close ready for everything necessary. And must will hand out the necessary equipment.” “ really?! No, you’d better take a mask with you in case of any exception.” I said anxiously. ”ok”. When curtain of night fell. I continually dialed the same number ,his cell phone. As I was told ,right at the moment he set off with his team that he would be back ,and would not sleep there. A sense of anxiety clutched my heart, it’s hurt. When it was about 10 p.m. A ring stirred me up. He told me, calmly, he wouldn’t come back tonight. I asked him why he hadn’t call me earlier. He said “nothing, just very busy, and finished the work just now.” Then a busy tone left. Another long night followed, so long as to intolerable. After 10 or more hours waiting, he eventually, called me he’s back still as calmly as before. But I perceived something unusual in his calm voice.At 5 p.m., he came back home. After I questioned him closely. He finally tell me what he experienced during that day. They ,all the 500 members ,were divided into 2 big teams, each team comprised 5 squads.35 people constituted their squad, will march for a remote and mountainous town of a counties. Without any equipment, even without a mouth mask, only some encouraging words and some discipline, which every Chinese can imagine easily , they started off. My husband and another female member were the only two who took the mouth masks themselves among the total 35…..Nevertheless , the equipment was still too simple in case of any actual danger. After that, accompanied by the leader of the village, they went into every household that had been reported before had some family members who had already come back from or still be emigrating workers in those plague areas.My husband,along with an accountant of the village met a boy stepping out of his gate, of course ,the accountant knowing who’s who of the village, greeting each other, and asked him where he ‘d go, as a routine greeting, the boy said he will asked for a doctor for his father. Alertly, my hubby asked his company, ”is his father a …?” He confessed he was a relation of him,who came from plague spot in Inner Mongolia with 18 others who hired a bus for their back at the price of 10 thousand Yuan a few days ago. These days he felt throat sore. ….When his body temperature was confirmed to be 38.5 degree .“Red alert” was taken. In a few hours, this case was rendered to the town,to the county,to the leadership of the city ,a respiratory expert of the county was sent to there, after a few examinations ,the patient still can not be certain if he is a confirmed case or a suspected one, or the best ,none of them. Then the leader of county decided to sent him to the hospital of the county. An ambulance with completely equipped medical personnel arrived and toke him away. The white color of the exposure suit must scared the all villagers who surrounded to watch. No drivers dared to take the dependents to the county ( no one knew why they should be taken).ultimately ,the bailiff commanded one driver. During this period of time,where were the 8 members from our workplace, what did they do? The waiting time happened to be lunch time. My hubby told me, he was very scrupulous about the distance when he talked with the patient, about 4 or 5 metres away, but the accountant himself, might for caring his feelings(mianzi in Chinese),talked with him without any precaution. My hubby told me afterwards ,he made one mistake, for caring his feelings too---he and another member in his squad had lunch with him (certainly didn’t go dutch),though the outcome had not been gotten, in the course of the lunch, the leader of the town complainted, indirectly ,about my hubby of too conscientious , and hinted this may arouse some side effects on his achievements in his official career… Abruptly tensity rised among the eight , one of them who is always talk turkey said inwardly in anger, that there was no need for them to be so serious, as most of them were not party members, comparing with duty,life is more vital ,”You are too leftish” he concluded in the end. The head of the squad may be scared .the first thing popped into his mind was to escape from there and from my husband, who definitely had become a perilous .Another one did not be seen since the news arrived. when received the order of withdrawal,the leader told him hired a car himself,and the other 7 would come back in the original microbus they took. My husband replied ”I cannot defer to it,because first,where I should go?my home? of course I absolutely cannot; second, hire a car? if so ,he might contract it also ,after that ,many other people might contract it too.” “then we hire it ,you take the microbus” when he has hardly finished speaking, the driver yelled” I won’t!” My husband said ‘ I suggest you won’t take it either, because I have taken it just now.’ One of the members said:”we all should stay out the accident and wait for the order” Silence came back. My husband ,afterwards, stayed in open air, alone , 4 hours,walk back and forth within the yard.and smoked two packs of cigarettes!while the other 7 dodged in a building whispered ,sometimes quarreled each other. About 10 o’clock that night,a call arrived ,alarm was removed ,it is said it was a false alarm !the patient was confirmed to have a infection of upper respiratory tract.as well as the information that the mayor in charge of SARS sternly criticized the head of the county for failing to protect our member.
Next day,two mouth mask of inferior quality were handed out.
Another information was told after that,about the poor condition of the hospital in the town in preparation for SARS.even without a qualified mouth mask,it was said for lack of necessary capital.It’s true,all the public servant had been paid 60% of their salary for 6 years there. Two days later, I watched a program of cctv about our city,it reported the outcome of the inspection by a team from the central government was satisfying.
