Spread of Coronavirus

The spread of the coronavirus, which now appears to be inevitable, reminds me of Amartya Sen's work on famine.  He pointed out that famine had only occurred in non-democratic countries, and that a key reason was the absence of a free press.  This meant the authrities themselves don't realise how widespread the problems are until it is late in the cycle, and I suspect something like this may have happened in China.