Hints of an Outbreak | The Corona Diary Part 1
January 2020: 'Wuhan Investigating 12 Cases of Mystery Pneumonia'. I scrolled through my South China Morning Post feed, absorbing this information about as consciously as the news that Julian Castro was dropping out of the U.S. presidential race. The world was a lot different then: Australian bushfires made the headlines daily, severe floods in Jakarta and tensions over Iran and the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane were the most prominent worries at the time. Even when isolated cases of this new virus showed up in other Chinese cities, I didn't think this would be any more severe than the occasional seasonal flu outbreak. In fact, most sources likened the disease to a mild cold. There was obviously nothing to worry about. My dad and I left Beijing for Germany on 18 January to visit my grandma. When I left, not even the people in China were wearing masks. From thousands of miles away, I watched the epidemic unfold. I intently followed the news as Wuhan was placed u