An unprece­dent­ed leak of inter­nal Chi­nese doc­u­ments reveals how the coun­try mis­han­dled the ear­ly stages of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic. The doc­u­ments — from Hubei province, the site of the world’s first known out­break — show Chi­na announced mis­lead­ing num­bers of new cas­es and deaths, was ham­pered by an aver­age three-week delay in diag­nos­ing new cas­es, and expe­ri­enced a huge spike in influen­za in the epi­cen­ter province in ear­ly December.