Published:
February 15, 2020
In Part 2 of his series on the coronavirus, LBJ Professor Joshua Busby looks at how the virus was declared a public health emergency:
"The response to the COVID-19 coronavirus has been draconian. With the lunar year vacation looming at the end of January, China shut down travel out of the city of Wuhan on Jan. 23 (and severely restricted entry as well), soon extending to the wider province of Hubei, with a population of 58 million people.
"Commerce and public outings in much of the rest of the China have also dropped markedly with cities like Shanghai looking like ghost towns after the government extending the lunar holiday and people stayed away from malls and other public places."
The full series:
- Part 1: The coronavirus: Global health is high politics
- Part 2: Pull the alarm? The coronavirus as a global emergency
- Part 3: Shut it down? The International Response to the Coronavirus
- Part 4: China and the coronavirus: Getting it right or very wrong?
- Part 5: Now what? Health security after the 2020 coronavirus