China’s Fail-Safe System failed

China Created a Fail-Safe System to Track Contagions. It Failed.

Steven Lee Myers

After SARS, Chinese health officials built an infectious disease reporting system to evade political meddling. But when the coronavirus emerged, so did fears of upsetting Beijing. The alarm system was ready. Scarred by the SARS epidemic that erupted in 2002, China had created an infectious disease reporting system that officials said was world-class: fast, thorough and, just as important, immune from meddling. Read more