"Do you take this woman to be your wife, for as long as you both shall live?" - that vow certainly seems to carry a lot less weight if you, and the rest of your wedding party, seem to think that death is absolutely imminent.
The photo above, taken earlier this week at a wedding in Seoul, shows the lengths that people are willing to go to minimize their chance of infection from MERS, the deadly respiratory disease that is spreading throughout the region.
For now, the disease is primarily confined to South Korea (and the Middle East, hence "ME" in the acronym - the RS being "Respiratory Syndrome"). Nearly 3,000 people have been quarantined, more than 100 people have been infected, and nine have died since the disease first broke out in late May.
China, which knows a thing or two about epidemics (looking at you, SARS, bird flu and pig flu) has been responding to the disease since the outbreak began on May 20.
Hong Kong and Taiwan have both issued travel warnings, urging citizens to skip "unnecessary" trips to South Korea, and Hong Kong is currently detaining a number of Koreans thought to have had contact with disease carriers.
The Mainland has yet to issue a travel warning, but - as anyone who has been watching Chinese news lately can attest - the country is taking this incredibly seriously (or at least giving it a lot of media coverage - it can be hard to separate the two).
There has been one reported case of MERS in the Mainland: a Guangdong man who had just returned from South Korea. He tested positive for the disease on May 29, but is now recovering and doesn't seem to have started an epidemic.
While China seems to have been spared from the disease for now, we still strongly recommend people be careful about illnesses when traveling and always, always buy stock in companies that sell masks.
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