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China's Failing Health System
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In his thin cotton mask and makeshift welder's goggles, Dr. Li Li guards China's shifting front line against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic. The young doctor oversees a new fever ward at the medical clinic in Biange township in central China's largely rural Hebei province, and he's dangerously unprepared for an outbreak of the disease. A chronic funding shortage means his clinic lacks even enough surgical masks. Behind him, workers erect a flimsy Plexiglas shield across a hallway to create an isolation ward where one patient already lies feverish. Asked if his facility can cope with SARS, Dr. Li...