New York Times, January 8th, 2020 ( link ): China Identifies New Virus Causing Pneumonialike Illness While a great deal of blame can go around for how COVID-19 was handled and the subsequent deaths and upending of our lives, no one can be blamed for not being aware of this virus strain before January. The same can't be said of the other (social) pandemic roiling our country. Racism and police brutality didn't first appear in a New York Times article 6 months ago. It's been with us for a long, long, long time, hundreds of years. There are no excuses. Enough.