Corona Daily 006: Flashback: Part One

January 2020 was dominated by news about the US senate’s impeachment trial of President Trump, bushfires raging in Australia, the Brexit drama finally ending with the EU-Britain divorce on 31 January, and Muslim women occupying a road in central Delhi to protest against India’s proposed discriminatory law. Only cover-to-cover readers came across a small news item talking about a mysterious flu in China turning parts of urban China into empty places.

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Now, nineteen months later, I tried to find the first mention of the coronavirus in any major international newspaper. It is perhaps a 6 January report by Sui-Lee Wee and Vivian Wang in New York Times. It quotes Lee Poon, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong. “I hope this pathogen is a less harmful one so it would not cause a major epidemic similar to SARS.” He said. “It would be a nightmare for all of us.”

“The (Chinese) authorities have acted swiftly to clamp down on discussion about the outbreak. Censors blocked the hashtag #WuhanSARS. The police said they were investigating eight people in Wuhan for “spreading rumours” online about the disease.” NYT reported.

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On the following day, 7 January, the US embassy in China issued a health alert. It said: “Travelers to Wuhan should avoid animals (alive or dead), animal markets and products that come from animals (such as uncooked meat). They should avoid contact with sick people, and wash hands often with soap and water.”

A longer article appeared in NYT on 8 January. It boldly, but not prophetically said, “There is no evidence that the new virus is readily spread by humans, which would make it particularly dangerous, and it has not been tied to any deaths.”  

“The initial cases were linked to workers at a market that sold live fish, animals and birds. Workers disinfected and shut down the market after the city health department said many of the cases had been traced to it.”

It is strange, if not suggestive, that the Chinese articles hyperlinked in the NYT have disappeared. You only see “404 not found”.

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On the same day, 8 January, a Hong Kong newspaper reported about a 36 year old woman returning to Korea from her business trip in China. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and was isolated.

The Washington Post dated 8 January also confirms “there is no clear evidence the unidentified disease can be transmitted between humans.”

The post is more graphic in describing the Wuhan market. “The 1000-stall bazaar sold not only seafood but marmots, spotted deer and venomous snakes, according to state media reports that described the market as filthy and messy.”

The article has an ominous sentence: “If the Wuhan pneumonia were found to be contagious, it could pose a major public health challenge coming just before the Lunar New Year Holiday, when more than 400 million Chinese are expected to travel, including 7 million who vacation overseas.”

Thankfully, the report ends on a comforting note. “Xu Jianguo, a former top Chinese public health official, struck an assuring note and said the government’s disease control capabilities today are much stronger than they were in the early 2000s. More than a decade has passed. It’s impossible for something like SARS to happen again.”

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Though I mentioned 6 January NYT article as the earliest, articles in local newspapers precede it. On 5 January, the Bangkok post talks about Thailand officials running thermal scans on passengers arriving from Wuhan. Every week, 24 flights arrived from Wuhan to Thailand. “China Southern Airlines will operate additional flights to Phuket from Jan 10 to Feb 3 to cater to the Chinese New Year festival” the report adds.

Now we know that the special flights went ahead, and Wuhan passengers in thousands landed in Phuket to celebrate the New Year.

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Judging by the newspapers in January, those in and around China who had experienced SARS were terrified the mysterious pneumonia may cause a SARS-like toll. That was the imagined limit. (By the way, SARS globally caused 8,098 cases and 774 deaths.)

During SARS, the doctors and nurses were ill at the start of the outbreak. This time, that was not the case. That misled the Chinese officials to believe human-to-human transmission was not possible.

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(Continued tomorrow)

Ravi