prepared an advisory document on the new ailment, labeling it “atypical pneumonia” (feidian in Cantonese). That was the phrase, a common though vague formulation, used weeks later by WHO in its global alert. An atypical pneumonia can be any sort of lung infection not attributable to one of the familiar agents, such as the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. Applying that familiar label tended to minimize, not accentuate, the uniqueness and potential severity of what was occurring in Zhongshan. This “pneumonia” was not just atypical; it was anomalous, fierce, and scary. The advisory document,
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