[noirchen]

Initially Chinese people treated it as flu, then they freaked out finding it to be SARS-like, and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore set temperature checks. During the SARS outbreak, Asian countries run totally unprotected for months with only thousands of cases, and actually they were relieved to know that the CFR is much lower. But this time, the virus is much contagious.

Actually many in China suspect that maybe a weak version has been around in SE Asia and China for years (remember that Malay pangolin?).