BANGKOK/MANILA/TAIPEI/TOKYO -- It was late December when Dorothy, a Wuhan resident, first began hearing stories about a mysterious surge in pneumonia cases in the city, an 11-million-strong metropolis in eastern China. Rumors spread quickly on social media, but the local government assured residents that the disease was "containable and curable," so she didn't worry unduly.
"I did go buy some masks and surgical spirit, but I wasn't immediately putting them on everywhere I go," she told the Nikkei Asian Review.
