The H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in 1996, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003-2004 and now covid-19 were all first detected in China. Some accounts even claim that a precursor to the 1918 influenza pandemic, the worst in modern history, first appeared in China.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Economics, not politics, helps explain why coronavirus and other diseases started in China
Here’s what global pandemic hotspots may have in common.
Analysis by Zeke Emanuel
and Scott Moore
May 1, 2020 at 8:03 a.m. EDT
