| When China announced in late January that it was locking down a population the size of Italy's to contain the novel coronavirus coursing through Wuhan, experts were skeptical. A quarantine of that scale had never been attempted in modern times. A similar effort in Liberia in 2014 amid an Ebola outbreak resulted in riots. Two months on, Wuhan is emerging from isolation—just as the virus engulfs much of the rest of the world. So what lessons can we learn from the Chinese city and its surrounding province, which has gone from thousands of infections a day in mid-February to zero last Thursday?  Staff members prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on March 24. Photographer: STR/AFP We need to be careful not to draw too many conclusions from a shutdown that was enforced by a top-down regime in a country where concepts of privacy are very different to those in Europe or the U.S. That said, clarity of message was an important factor. Once China made the decision to shut down Wuhan after a series of early mistakes, there was no wavering from the central mission. That is a stark contrast to the U.K. and the U.S., which have confused citizens on the nature of the threat and the measures needed to address them. Even now, with the pathogen starting to rip through New York, President Donald Trump is openly wondering whether the economic price of fighting the virus is worth it. China has also made clear that there are no easy fixes. Wuhan's quarantine won't be lifted until April 8 and temperature checks, masks and other restrictions remain in place throughout China. Doctors say this virus is as infectious as the flu, which had three peaks in the pandemics of 1889 and 1918, with later waves more lethal than the first. But perhaps the biggest lesson to draw from China is patience. It was a long struggle, even if it looks like the worst is over. In Italy, too, there are some hopeful signs that the lockdown enacted more than two weeks ago is starting to work. In another few weeks, we may see light at the end of the tunnel for New York and London too—assuming their leaders don't cave first. Fighting the virus is like war, a former deputy director of China's CDC told us in February. "Some things are hard, but must be done."—Emma O'Brien. | 
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