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April 15, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY
<<<photo of Herzberg is attached>>>
Calvin College - which has an Asian Studies minor, a semester in China program
and summer internships in China - is canceling an upcoming three-week trip to
China and scrubbing seven summer internships because of SARS.
A decision has yet to be made on Calvin's fall 2003 semester-long program to
China.
Calvin professor Larry Herzberg has been monitoring the SARS situation for the
past several weeks and says this weekend the SARS virus reached a tipping point
for him both personally and professionally, causing him to cancel a three-week
trip for a dozen students and him slated for this May and June.
Conversations with contacts in Shanghai have convinced him that the threat of
SARS is real and that the fear SARS is spreading across China is also a
threat.
Says Herzberg: "One of my Shanghai friends said that if we made the trip, and
one of us were to come down with serious flu symptoms or a respiratory problem,
and they brought us to a Shanghai hospital to be treated, if you didn't have
SARS already, you might get it there."
In addition Herzberg's sister-in-law, who is Chinese, is currently
hospitalized with SARS in a Beijing hospital.
Canceling the trip was a tough call for Herzberg, but the right call he says.
"I was looking forward to this trip as much as the students were," he says.
"It was an exciting itinerary. And the students were the best group of
students I ever assembled for one of these trips to Asia. But if we made this
trip, and a student came down with SARS, I would never be able to live with
that."
None of the 12 students scheduled to make the trip will lose any money since
Calvin will pay all the financial penalties associated with cancellation.
This week Calvin also will cancel the three summer internships that were
awarded for work in Beijing and four internships awarded for work in Shandong
Province and Shanghai.
Calvin has one of the largest international student populations of any school
in West Michigan (almost 450 students representing 50 countries), including 18
students from China and Hong Kong, almost 50 students from South Korea, six
students from Malaysia, five from Taiwan and four from Singapore.
Although scientists have yet to isolate the cause of SARS and find a cure,
most sufferers recover with prompt medical attention. About 4 percent of those
infected have died, and doctors have said that patients with aggravating
illnesses appear most at risk. However, health officials in Hong Kong said
Monday they were trying to figure out why six relatively young SARS patients
with no aggravating illnesses have died in recent days. Many of the
territory's other fatalities have been elderly people or patients suffering
from other chronic health problems, such as heart disease or kidney disease.
Contact Larry Herzberg at 616-526-6363. Best times on Tuesday are between 10
and 10:25 a.m. and between 12:30 and 1:25 p.m.
-end-
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