SARS from East to West

This volume offers a unique multidisciplinary and cross-national perspective on institutional and media responses to the SARS outbreak. Its in-depth coverage of key outbreak events, decisions, actions and media representations in China (including Hong Kong) and Canada helps us understand just how disruptive and challenging even a medium-fatality viral outbreak like SARS can be. This book is a must-read for students of disasters and emergency management world-wide. -- Paul 't Hart, Utrecht University and Australian National University This rich and ground-breaking book synthesizes a multitude of evidence and argument to provide the definitive explanation of how the world responded to SARS. It also offers valuable lessons on how to prepare for and cope with the devastating potential of transboundary pandemics. It is a must-read for scholars and practitioners in the field. -- Allan McConnell, The University of Sydney

Eva-Karin Olsson is senior analyst at the National Center for Crisis Management Research and Training at Swedish National Defense College. Lan Xue is professor and dean of the School of Public Policy and Management, executive vice president of the Development Research Academy for the 21st Century, and director of China Institute for Science and Technology Policy at Tsinghua University.

1 Acknowledgments 2 Abbreviations 3 1. SARS: Meeting an Epidemic Head-On 4 2. SARS in China: An Overview 5 3. SARS in Beijing: An Urban Response 6 4. SARS in Hong Kong 7 5. An Analytical Memoir of the WHO Operation in China 8 6. SARS in Canada: Lessons to be Learned from the Greater Toronto Outbreak 9 7. SARS and Representations of the Morality of Quarantine in Ontario, Canada 10 8. Early International News Flow about SARS: Interconnected or Unconnected? 11 9. SARS in China: Western European News Coverage of a Pandemic in the East 12 10. Transboundary Crisis Management: Implications for Research and Practice 13 About the Contributors