It's all because of a well-known respiratory disease that was one of the biggest stories of 2003 -- SARS. Severe acute respiratory syndrome went mainstream in November 2002 and was a 'major pandemic' until July 2003. There were a total of 8,096 cases that resulted in 774 deaths. However, the mass hysteria I recall didn't have anything to do with those kinds of frightening numbers. The United States as a whole seemed to lose all sense of reality once the media got hold of SARS. I remember seeing people walking around the mall, grocery store, etc. with goofy white masks over their noses and mouth. It's understandable that with a mortality rate of nearly 10% most people wouldn't want to mess around with SARS. However, nearly all of those cases and deaths came in countries in the Orient.
As far as Americans are concerned, SARS isn't nearly as common as UFO abductions or ghost interactions. Only 8 people reported any laboratory evidence of SARS in the U.S., and most of them contracted it abroad. The SARS epidemic in the U.S. was simply an 'Epidemic of Fear', nothing more. Because of the way the public and the intial media handled the news of the disease in Asia, SARS became the topic that CNN, MSNBC, etc. desire to beat into the ground for 22 hours a day for 6 months. Asian operated businesses began reporting losses, and SARS was looked at as a product of the culture in Asia rather than a disease caused by SARS coronavirus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome
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A great one would have been Mad Cow Disease, or, as the kids call it, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow" is scarier). It's a disease so rare that maybe a dozen people have ever had it. Out of 6.5 billion. So, yeah, you are insanely safe. But you still know what this disease is called. Totally overblown.
B
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