Like anyone who was in Beijing in the spring of 2003, Hongkui Deng remembers it vividly. The Chinese government could no longer deny that the country was in the grip of a new and potentially fatal disease: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). By July, the epidemic would have spread, affecting more than 8,000 people worldwide and claiming 813 lives; but in April, the panic was already palpable. Normally bustling, the streets of Beijing were virtually deserted. The few people who ventured out wore masks and gloves, and avoided even eye contact with others. Cinemas, schools and shops were closed. It was, as many describe it, frightening and eerie — even apocalyptic. "Everyone was scared," Deng recalls.
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