Thread by @JChengWSJ

There's been a lot of focus on @WSJ in China, so offering a thread of our news bureau's coronavirus coverage, starting with a Jan. 8 scoop that first named the then-mysterious pathogen as a "novel coronavirus." @WHO confirmed it Jan. 10.
@natashakhanhk
wsj.com/articles/new-v…

Prior to that, we had published one report on Jan. 6 on the existence of a fast-spreading, still-unidentified viral pneumonia in Wuhan that had infected 59 people up until then, and that authorities had ruled out SARS and MERS.
@wangfanfan
wsj.com/articles/healt…

We ran our first on-the-ground report from Wuhan after a visit Jan. 7. @wangfanfan and @StephanieAYang found a city still largely unconcerned with the virus. "I heard that we could move back before the Spring Festival," said one Huanan Market fishmonger.
wsj.com/articles/sars-…

Here's the @WHO's first statement on the novel coronavirus on Jan. 10, citing a Xinhua report on Jan. 9.
who.int/ith/2020-0901_…

Jan. 10: Our global health reporter @betswrites offers a helpful explainer on the new coronavirus and the increasing role that coronaviruses are playing in global public health epidemics. (The story was updated on Jan. 21.)
wsj.com/articles/virus…

Jan. 19: As the Lunar New Year holiday approached, @Chao_Deng highlighted the risks for a rapid spread of the virus around China and the world: "China’s weeklong Lunar New Year Holiday begins Friday, with hundreds of millions of people expected to travel."
wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 20: Coronavirus fears burst into the mainstream as Xi Jinping speaks publicly on the crisis for the first time and revered doctor Zhong Nanshan warns of human-to-human transmission. "Right now is the time when we should increase alert."
@Chao_Deng
wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 22: Taiwan has warned for years that Beijing's attempts to exclude it from the @WHO would threaten the world if an epidemic were to break out. On Jan. 21, Taiwan confirmed its first case. "That should concern everyone around the world.”
@ByChunHan
wsj.com/articles/taiwa…

At around 2am on Jan. 23, authorities took the unprecedented step of locking down Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. @ByShanLi @jamestareddy were on the ground, and captured the confusion at the train station. “I wanted to flee immediately."
@Chao_Deng
wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 23: @ByShanLi was aboard one of the last trains out of Wuhan, and describes the pandemonium around her in gripping detail. “They weren’t honest and waited weeks to tell us common people…Once they start closing ways out, who is brave enough to stay?”
wsj.com/articles/relie…

Jan. 24: We run our first page-one investigation into who knew what when, raising questions about the pace at which the outbreak was confronted. Sources tell @Lingling_Wei @Chao_Deng that Xi Jinping personally ordered the extraordinary lockdown on Wuhan.
wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 24: One of the earliest stories talking to relatives of Wuhan patients who died with all the telltale signs of the coronavirus—but were given a different official cause of death, raising questions about severe undercounting.
@xinwenfan wsj.com/articles/relat…

Jan. 24: An on-the-ground piece focused on just how strained Wuhan's front-line hospitals have been, forced to turn away patients because of a lack of beds and basic medical supplies. “There’s a shortage of medical supplies, help!!!”
@littlewern @ByShanLi
wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 25: We look at what the botched handling of the coronavirus outbreak says about China’s ability to handle basic public-health tasks—in spite of its world-class genomics, virologists and gleaming hospitals.
@betswrites @jamestareddy @Chao_Deng
wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 25: A scoop on the U.S. government organizing an evacuation flight for the roughly 1,000 Americans in Wuhan sets off confusion, hope and a scramble among Americans and other foreign nationals to get out.
@jamestareddy @Liz_in_Shanghai
wsj.com/articles/u-s-p…

Jan. 26: Our first feature on the coronavirus's likely economic impact: "Anxiety may be spreading faster than the coronavirus…That adds risks to what was already expected to be a very challenging year for the economy in China."
@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu
wsj.com/articles/deadl…

Jan. 27: A page-one feature on the wet market—and the hankering for wild meat—likely at the heart of the epidemic. “Why do I eat it? It is delicious…You don’t need to cook it in any special way: Once you taste it, you’ll know it’s civet.”
@JNBPage wsj.com/articles/virus…

Jan. 27: An analysis of Xi Jinping's decision to delegate the coronavirus response to his No. 2 Li Keqiang, a role reversal with risks and opportunities for both men. "By leading from behind, Xi always has the option of very publicly sacking Li."
@JNBPage wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 27: Meanwhile, after the State Department and Chinese Foreign Ministry confirm plans for a U.S. evacuation of Wuhan, agonizing hours for Americans in the city—some can't get a seat, others decide to hunker down in situ.
@jamestareddy @Liz_in_Shanghai
wsj.com/articles/ameri…

Jan. 28: A look at how the world’s most formidable censorship machine has been put to the test as authorities struggle to dictate the narrative around the outbreak. "If Hubei people must die, we should die knowing the reason."
@Lingling_Wei wsj.com/articles/china…

Jan. 29: For China's 1.3 billion, trapped in self-quarantine, fear melts into boredom, with the consequences pouring out online: people dressing up as dragons, deseeding strawberries and drawing tiny smiley faces on each kernel of an ear of corn.
@evadou
wsj.com/articles/as-ch…

Jan. 30: An American family hoping to board the U.S. evacuation flight is foiled at the airport because the 8-year-old daughter's passport was outside locked-down Wuhan. “I need to make my government make something happen. I don’t know how.”
@jamestareddy
wsj.com/articles/an-am…

@jamestareddy Feb. 3: A page-one piece on the deepening economic pain as the world learns to cope with the unprecedented freezeout of a vital economic hub from the economy. “We don’t know what to do. Our employees are panicking.”
@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan
on.wsj.com/3b81BNS

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan Feb. 4: Cities in China are repurposing their formidable surveillance capabilities to track and publish the movements of infected patients. "In this day and age, you can trace everyone’s movements with big data."
@Liz_in_Shanghai on.wsj.com/2RXJinm

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai Feb. 6: A painful page-one story about Chinese families, desperate for a coronavirus cure, flocking online to seek experimental remedies, despite government warnings that no proven treatment has been found. "I’m begging everyone."
@wangfanfan @joshchin
on.wsj.com/384GOc6

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin Feb. 6: Not long after the U.S. and China struck a provisional trade deal, things began to grow testy again as Beijing repeatedly singled out Washington over its response to the coronavirus. "It is certainly not a gesture of goodwill."
@jamestareddy
on.wsj.com/2vWqL26

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin Feb. 7: Xi Jinping wages a war on two fronts—viral and political—facing a coronavirus threat unlike any other challenge he faces. “This is not just a public health crisis. He seems to be dealing with an internal political crisis."
@Lingling_Wei @JNBPage
on.wsj.com/2H98eBK

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage Feb. 7: A turning point captured on our front page—the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, who had raised an early alarm on the coronavirus, only to be silenced and to die of the disease, triggering an outpouring of grief and anger across China.
@Chao_Deng @joshchin on.wsj.com/387Egdg

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng Feb. 7: Patients pack a Wuhan waiting room, IV drips in their arms. Medical staff wheel patients through crowds. In hallways, the sick lie on cots hooked to oxygen tanks. Harrowing frontline report by @Chao_Deng @stuwoo on the strains in Wuhan's hospitals.
on.wsj.com/2Ox97by

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo Feb. 10: Page-one tale of a Chinese architect stopping in Wuhan—and seven other cities—on his way home for the Lunar New Year in January, unaware he is spreading the virus. “No one realized there was an epidemic going on.”
@JNBPage @raffaelehuang
on.wsj.com/387ylFf

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang Feb. 10: Work resumes across China—at least in theory. In reality, workers are stranded, unable to reach factories. Office towers are dark as employees work from home. In deserted malls, bored clerks play smartphone games.
@stuwoo @jamestareddy
on.wsj.com/38ho9tI

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang Feb. 11: Meanwhile, in Wuhan, it's moped-riding delivery men who are the hidden heroes, dispatching food and necessities in the epicenter of a highly-contagious disease, even as they're ostracized by those they serve.
@Chao_Deng @stuwoo on.wsj.com/31HAJQw

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang Feb. 11: In Wuhan, widespread doubts about the coronavirus tests—Chinese health authorities broadened diagnostic options days later—fuel fears about massive undercounting, and denied treatment for thousands who had coronavirus-like symptoms.
@Chao_Deng
on.wsj.com/2HcajgB

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang Feb. 12: A front-page deep-dive on the WHO and its awkward relationship with China. "Dr. Tedros and the WHO are caught in an awfully difficult position, between what the science dictates and a very, very powerful country."
@JNBPage @betswrites
on.wsj.com/2uJ4NPH

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites Feb. 13: As China's economy falters, its coronavirus challenge defies traditional prescriptions for responding to an economic shock. Massive stimulus won’t end the work stoppages and material shortages hobbling China's economy.
@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu
on.wsj.com/2wL9QzV

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites Feb. 14: On the ground in Wuhan, a look at how the frontlines of the coronavirus fight are being pushed out to the city's residential communities, where Party members with little medical experience are inundated with calls from worried citizens.
@Chao_Deng on.wsj.com/37pWcid

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites Feb. 14: Wall Street sets new record highs as investors fix their eyes on a drop in the rate of new infections. Now, a sudden jump in cases complicates that optimism while raising new questions about the virus's peak.
@xinwenfan @Chao_Deng @natashakhanhk
on.wsj.com/39uMigP

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk Feb. 14: Even as Beijing pitches the crisis as a test of friendship, calling on foreign governments not to restrict ties, some of China's closest friends have been among the first to pull up the drawbridge: N. Korea, Russia, Iran, Singapore.
@ByChunHan on.wsj.com/31TMaVl

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan Feb. 18: As the world restricts travel for China's newly-mobile millions, many are getting a jolt watching their livelihoods impacted, and their egos bruised. “It’s devastating emotionally."
@jamestareddy
on.wsj.com/2wwztVb

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan Feb. 18: China enlists tech giants Alibaba and Tencent to create a smartphone app to limit citizens' movements. Those with green badges can move around with relative freedom, while those with yellow or red badges must self-quarantine.
@Liz_in_Shanghai
on.wsj.com/2SX0GYA

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan Wuhan's hospitals, struggling to cope with the coronavirus, have even less time for patients suffering from other ailments—leukemia, HIV or immune-system disorders. "I cried out loud…for my city and for my baby."
@Kubota_Yoko @janieyyj1 @raffaelehuang
on.wsj.com/2T2lqhB

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan @Kubota_Yoko @janieyyj1 Feb. 20: Meanwhile, in sunny California, our evacuated-from-Hubei colleagues @StephanieAYang @ByShanLi capture the quirks of quarantine life—the U.S.'s first mass exercise of this type since the 1950s. "That was the weirdest concert I’ve ever been to."
on.wsj.com/2v3kpOi

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan @Kubota_Yoko @janieyyj1 @StephanieAYang @ByShanLi Feb. 21: In a three-in-one first-person piece, @StephanieAYang @ByShanLi @jamestareddy describe the extraordinary reach of the Chinese government’s coronavirus response. “This is not to restrict your freedom…But we are serving the country and the people.”
on.wsj.com/37JrJMg

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan @Kubota_Yoko @janieyyj1 @StephanieAYang @ByShanLi Feb. 24: Millions of Chinese migrant workers like ride-hailing driver Zhang Hua are stuck home without work, blocked by travel restrictions and forgoing weeks of income. “Family members are counting on me to eat."
@stuwoo
on.wsj.com/3a0brjy

@jamestareddy @TByGraceZhu @QiLiyan @Liz_in_Shanghai @wangfanfan @joshchin @Lingling_Wei @JNBPage @Chao_Deng @stuwoo @raffaelehuang @betswrites @xinwenfan @natashakhanhk @ByChunHan @Kubota_Yoko @janieyyj1 @StephanieAYang @ByShanLi Feb. 24: Our @joshchin and @PhilipWen11 fly out of China five days after they and @Chao_Deng, who is still being kept in Wuhan, were expelled from the country for a headline in our opinion section, according to China's Foreign Ministry. Our page-one story:
on.wsj.com/2SCP65P