- Doubts about Wuhan market -China won early kudos for reporting the virus and releasing its gene sequence in a timely manner, compared with its cover-up of the 2002-03 SARS outbreak.But there has also been secrecy and shifting stories.Wuhan authorities initially tried to cover up the outbreak and later spent precious weeks denying human-to-human transmission.Early on, Chinese officials declared flatly that the outbreak began at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.But Chinese data in January 2020 showed that several of the first cases had no known links to the now-shuttered market, suggesting a source elsewhere.China's story morphed again last March when top Chinese disease control official Gao Fu said the market was not the source, but a.