Excerpt from the private journal of Dr. Erica Kennedy, interim director of the CDC:
November 11 – We have sent an agent into the field to investigate rumors of a virulent new disease. The agent has failed to report. I am now on site in China to follow up on the situation. These are my findings:
The virus started in a wet market. Bats were caged too close to civet cats. An apartment owner fell ill while tending to the animals he was selling. The virus jumped from the civets to the human, and the virus entered his skin presumably through a minor cut. This man fell ill seven days later and was taken to a nearby hospital.