There was a cultural shift in the USA after the placement of George W. Bush in the presidency.

The culture was about the individual, "America's Got Talent," "My Space," and "Facebook" assisted in creating a commercialized imagining of average Americans. For no money at all, a person could have their own space on the internet where their entire lives could be recorded. It was a boom for marketing and every person who cared to found instant friends and some fame.

This all occurred after September 11, 2001. Facebook launched on February 4, 2004. 

Americans were distracted by their own security after those attacks. But, while the USA was still quaking from those attacks and personal privacy was under attack, across the Pacific a virus was finding life.

Nov. 16, 2002 -- The first case of an atypical pneumonia is reported in the Guangdong province in southern China.

Feb. 26, 2003 -- First cases of unusual pneumonia reported in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Feb 28, 2003 -- World Health Organization officer Carlo Urbani, MD, examines an American businessman with an unknown form of pneumonia in a French hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam.

March 10, 2003 -- Urbani reports an unusual outbreak of the illness, which he calls sudden acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, to the main office of the WHO. He notes that the disease has infected an usually high number of healthcare workers (22) at the hospital.

March 11, 2003 -- A similar outbreak of a mysterious respiratory disease is reported among healthcare workers in Hong Kong.

March 12, 2003 -- WHO issues a global alert about a new infectious disease of unknown origin in both Vietnam and Hong Kong....

The WHO is not an alarmist organization. They gather facts and when there is a danger they then announce an unknown origin of what appears to be a very dangerous virus.

It was nearly 4 months before SARS-CoV-1 became an awareness to the world.