Beating Back the Bug

Leo Ma should be frightened of SARS. The Hong Konger caught the disease in the devastating Amoy Gardens outbreak, and he was only discharged from the hospital on April 24. The nature of the virus is still so mysterious that nobody even knows whether or not a recovered patient like Ma can be reinfected. But with the disease on the wane in Hong Kong, SARS no longer seems so terrifying to him. While Ma says he'll "still be careful and maintain personal hygiene," he's already given up wearing a surgical mask.

In much of Asia, cautious optimism is...