Living on a Prayer

The tragic face of the SARS epidemic in Taiwan doesn't belong to a patient or a politician, or even to a doctor or a nurse. Instead, the most vivid expression of this outbreak's impact can be found on an eight-year-old girl, Tang Chia-ru, who wears her hair in pigtails and, when given the choice, prefers noodles to rice. Last Friday, she stood behind her father fidgeting with her face mask and staring at the swarm of photographers who surrounded her and at the smiling face of her mother who looked down from a picture frame hanging in a Taipei funeral parlor....