The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) Expert Committee met in Hong Kong this week to review the management and control of the SARS outbreak in the former British territory and to make recommendations for Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.The fate of the Secretary for Health, Welfare, and Food, Eng-kiong Yeoh, rests on the report from the committee—chaired by two independent experts Cyril Chantler and Sian Griffiths, both from the UK—which is expected in September.Yeoh was one of three ministers with whom the public was dissatisfied by the handling of the SARS outbreak that saw Hong Kong as the worst-hit area outside mainland China. A total of 1755 people were infected and 299 died.Yeoh had previously chaired the committee, which is tasked not to assign blame but to pave the way for future handling of SARS; however, public opposition forced Tung to excuse the Secretary for Health, Welfare, and Food from the job.Meanwhile, Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun resigned from her position as Director of Health in the Hong Kong government to take up a senior job with WHO in Geneva as the director for the protection of the human environment.Her departure from the government is seen as a vote of no confidence in an administration whose bias towards hospitals has made Hong Kong vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks.