“I’ve Just Been Swept Up in This Wave”: How the Earliest COVID Coverage Shaped Our World

On December 31, 2019, Sui-Lee Wee, a reporter in The New York Times’ Beijing bureau, was at a children’s museum with her little ones when her phone started buzzing. She opened up a group chat in WhatsApp and saw an article, from a local newspaper about 720 miles away in the city of Wuhan, about a mystery illness that was circulating there. Wee sat down near a display of toy train tracks, in front of a gaggle of boisterous toddlers, trying to make sense of what she was reading. It was all rather vague, and since she was off from… Read Full Article