Hmmm...where did you get the stats. I thought for SARS, the
mortality rate is 10% for those under 65, and up to 50% for those
over 65.
It is true that flu kills 22,000 in the US every year, 400,000
worldwide, but SARS is a far greater potential threat, because of
its higher mortality rate even though in most cases it is not as
highly infectious as in superspreaders.
Perhaps now scientists are more familiar with SARS and able to
contain it if it appears again. But whenever there is a new
disease, the potential for it to be a killer is very high. For
example, the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people
than the first world war. Estimates vary but some believe as many
as half a billion people were infected of which 30 million
died.
This is what makes bird flu so worrisome; if it mutates and gain
the ability spread from humans to humans, it could be the next big
killer disease.