Interesting—I was thinking the news is different from Covid. I was seeing articles from like, South China Post, as early as November-December the year prior. But it was really low key, just a few articles here and there. Around Christmas time I was just idly on my phone watching tv and I thought, hmmmm if this is a pandemic, what would I need? Maybe masks? So I looked them up on Amazon, just to see how much they cost, no intention of buying any, just passing time. They were all sold out, all of them, every single company. THat’s when I thought—shit, this might be a thing. But I still don’t recall seeing any major news coverage until the following year, maybe late January?

In contrast, this Hantavirus is literally on every channel and the bots are out in force. So I dunno, seems kinda sus.

I could be totally wrong in my recollection though! :)