Disease Is Inevitable. Compassion Is a Choice.

I flew to Beijing on January 18, four days before international news outlets began reporting on the coronavirus outbreak, now a global health emergency. Our small group had been planning our big adventure since the summertime, excited to visit a mutual friend of ours who had been studying in China for the last several months.

From Beijing, we went immediately to Harbin, a city in northern China famous for their seasonal ice and snow sculptures. We spent our first few days there cavorting in subzero temperatures, taking silly pictures with giant snowmen and climbing the neon-lit walls of the festival’s life-sized ice castles. We started to hear talk about a virus down in Wuhan—over a thousand miles away—but the people we spoke to were unconcerned. “The virus?” said the day-trip coordinator working at our hotel. “That’s in Wuhan. Not here.” 

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