How Wuham Lost the Fight to Contain the Coronavirus

It's clear by now that the initial response, or lack of it, to the novel coronavirus in Wuhan was a major factor in the spread of the disease. Here's a long article that goes into detail about the first days of the outbreak. 

Doctors on the front lines of epidemic outbreaks always sense the danger ahead.

Zhao Lei at the infectious disease department of the Wuhan Union Hospital said he received the first patient suspected with coronavirus infection in December. The patient’s pneumonia symptoms were quite unusual, and a CT scan showed shadows in his lungs, Zhao said. Although CT scan results are not the only reference for coronavirus diagnosis, they are a key indicator. 

In the following days, patients with similar symptoms started to flood into the hospital, sometimes reaching 800 or 900 in one day, Zhao said. The hospital had to transfer more doctors and nurses to the fever clinic to treat the influx of patients. 

Several doctors raised concerns of a new strain of virus that showed stronger contagion and severity than normal respiratory infections, but they were confused by health-care authorities’ hesitance to take measures and official statements declaring the disease controllable.

Let's hope that authorities in Canada and the US are better prepared.