Smooth Move Alert!
Dan Mangan in the NY Post reveals China's Fatal Secret:

Scientists are furious that China hid a mysterious illness that raged there for months, preventing them from getting an early jump on the pneumonia-like disease that has affected hundreds - including a doctor who visited New York City last week.

"People are upset about this," one American epidemiologist told The Post on the condition of anonymity.

"Things were concealed, they were hidden from the rest of the world. We didn't know how bad it was."

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has drawn worldwide attention and been called a global "threat" by health officials in the past week after nearly 200 people fell ill, mainly in Southeast Asia.
...
The syndrome apparently first began appearing in November in China's Guandong Province, where 305 people suffered from symptoms that include high fever and difficulty breathing.

And the Chinese only recently have begun discussing the outbreak with outside health officials, who are conducting an intensive effort to track the disease.

China yesterday gave the World Health Organization written observations about the spread of the syndrome.

But University of Michigan epidemiologist Arnold Monto said the delay meant that health officials are nearly five months behind in discovering the syndrome's cause, finding medicine to combat it and taking steps to prevent its spread.

One can't help but wonder where it got "stuck" in the Communist Chinese bureaucracy.