Beth Meriam's 2011 ethnography "China's Tibetan Frontiers" contains brief descriptions of state and local responses to the SARS epidemic and seems worth a revisit [thread] brill.com/view/title/194… 
Meriam describes the outbreak from Trinde (ཁྲྲི་འདུ) County in Yushu prefecture, pretty much smack bang in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau, in souther Qinghai Province.
She starts by describing the responses to the outbreak as two sorts of 'returns' - a return to revolutionary methods by the state, and a return to 'traditional' practices by local people.
At the time of the outbreak, TV was the main channel for disseminating information, but also government administrators, newspapers, and gossip. This, obviously, has changed enormously now, with social media playing the primary role... 4/n
Locals responded primarily with massive skepticism and cynicism towards the state response. Meriam quotes a local teacher as saying "‘The government cannot do anything." What about now? Have these attitudes changed under a more aggressive and assertive state? 5/n
Locals responded primarily with a resurgence in religious and 'popular' treatments. There was 'pandemonium' at the local Traditional Tibetan Medicine Hospital. The local health bureau distributed 'blessed pills'. What about today, with much heavier regulation of religion? 6/n
The Dalai Lama gave an empowerment to protect people from SARS. News of this was relayed secretly from India and then circulated through the community. There was mass participation in ritually receiving the empowerment. Today, with greater censorship, would this be possible? 7/n
Tibet's 'pure' environment & Tibetan people's spirituality were seen as providing impunity. Locals said, "Even though many Tibetans live in Beijing, & although countless Chinese became ill, not a single Tibetan contracted the illness." 8/n
For many Tibetans in Trinde, SARS "reaffirmed the power of dharma". Again, its worth asking if this would be the case again today, given how much as changed... 9/n
Discourses about SARS also tied into tropes connecting China, modernity, & spiritual pollution... "People considered SARS to be pollution from urban inner China centres. [They] also linked SARS to local moral degeneration via idioms associated w Western & Chinese modernity" 10/n
Many Tibetans interpreted SARS as another bit of evidence that we live in a degenerate age. Other signs include "gold-mining, vegetable consumption, monks... giving women lifts on... motorbikes, stepping over books...& inability to read or recite the literary-language" 11/n
So, those are some notes from how SARS was perceived and treated amongst Tibetans. They provide a useful point of comparison for thinking about how Tibetans will now be responding to the #CoronavirusOutbreak
