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Drinking beer won't prevent SARS, Singaporeans told 

Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong used a May Day union gathering to shoot down SARS myths, and his remarks were played up by local media Friday. . .

"Let me try to kill off three more rumours. Abstaining from pork will not increase your immunity. Although alcohol kills viruses, drinking alcohol will not prevent SARS. And I hear that some people think smoking wards off SARS!"

He issued a warning against spreading false news through mobile phones using the popular short message service (SMS).

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Smoking ban goes up in SARS smoke 

The SARS scare in the city may be good news for smokers. Busy tackling the SARS menace, the West Bengal health department officials have not found time to announce and publicise the anti-smoking legislation, which comes into effect on Thursday.

Department officials admitted on Wednesday that the legislation was the farthest thing on their minds with the SARS virus hogging all attention.

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SARS Myths Popped by Singapore's Lee -- Booze, Tobacco No Help 

Indians are immune to it, while a pork-free diet, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and chain smoking cigarettes help keep it at bay.

At least, that's what Singapore's rumor-mongers would have us believe about severe acute respiratory syndrome, the disease that's killed at least 370 people and infected more than 5,660 worldwide.

In Singapore, which has shut schools and quarantined more than 4,000 people to contain the disease, the government takes such talk seriously. So much so that Lee Hsien Loong, son of Singapore's founding father as well as the island nation's Deputy Prime Minister, came out in person to quash the myths today. . .

Singapore would punish such loose talk, he said, warning those spreading rumors they face jail terms of as long as three years.

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