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As new coronavirus spread, China's old habits delayed fight

By Chris Buckley and Steven Lee Myers
New York Times·
14 mins to read

At critical turning points, Chinese authorities put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis and risking public alarm or political embarrassment.

A mysterious illness had stricken seven patients at a hospital, and a doctor tried to warn his medical school classmates. "Quarantined in the emergency department," the doctor, Li Wenliang, wrote in an online chat group on December 30, referring to patients.

"So frightening," one recipient replied, before asking about the epidemic that began in China in

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