The Leader Newspaper
Author David Aitken
My arm has often felt like a pincushion. A good example of this was during the SARS epidemic in 2002, when both myself and severe acute respiratory syndrome were at work in Hong Kong at the same time. Not that Hong Kong was at fault particularly — the outbreak was first identified in Foshan in China, and thought to have originated in an animal market where you could buy everything from civets and snakes to rabbits and pheasants. No change there.
Despite having to wear a mask while attempting to teach English as a foreign (or muffled) language, I persevered and survived, and my only acute breathing was as I plodded up five flights of stairs to where the victims of my teaching were similarly masked.