Coronavirus crisis: Together, apart.

Mid-November in Wuhan, China, and cases of a strange new flu start surfacing. In a sprawling city of 11 million people, the coronavirus, our invisible brutal enemy was born - festering at least a month and a half before the world was told. In January President Xi Jinping made a decision that would ultimately condemn the world: allowing 5 million people to leave the epicentre of the virus without being screened.

A Wuhan doctor who was one of the first to sound the alarm about the spread of coronavirus has reportedly disappeared, sparking fears she has been detained for speaking out.

Dr Ai Fen, head of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, gave a grim account of the deaths and strain on medical staff to Chinese magazine People, and criticised the authorities’ handling of the outbreak.

She described how, instead of heeding her warnings and taking early precautions, the hospital dismissed them and reprimanded her for ‘illegally spreading untruthful information online’ and causing panic.

The doctor claimed she had been silenced by bosses after taking a photo of a patient’s test results with the words ‘SARS coronavirus’ circled with red pen.

Journalist goes undercover at "wet markets", where the Coronavirus started 

Animal activist and naturalist Chris Packman joined Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby from his home on This Morning today to discuss the Chinese government’s decision to reopen wet markets.

The predictions about the coronavirus catastrophe grow more ominous by the day, and despite the best efforts of countries like Australia in enacting emergency action plans to contain the disease, its spread continues at a worrying rate. Even the World Health Organisation forecasts a world of pain. It says the virus poses a greater global threat than terrorism. That’s bad enough, but medical experts tell 60 MINUTES it’s actually even more terrifying. Professor Gabriel Leung, who led the fight against the SARS virus, believes 60 per cent of the world’s population could become infected with COVID-19 and that up to 45 million people might die from it. For this story, Liam Bartlett has travelled to Hong Kong and Thailand to find out the likely cause of the disease, as well as the latest ongoing efforts to combat it. At all times he and his crew have followed medical advice and undertaken strict protocols to limit their exposure to potential danger.

For forty years, 60 Minutes have been telling Australians the world’s greatest stories. Tales that changed history, our nation and our lives. Reporters Liz Hayes, Allison Langdon, Tara Brown, Charles Wooley, Liam Bartlett and Sarah Abo look past the headlines because there is always a bigger picture. Sundays are for 60 Minutes.