Mysterious pneumonia tears through schools in China with 'many, many hospitalized' - in eerie echo of early days of Covid | 22 Nov 2023 | Scientists today called for vigilance and transparency from China amid reports of a mystery cluster of pneumonia which has eerie similarities to the early Covid outbreak. Hospitals in Beijing and 500 miles northeast in Liaoning are "overwhelmed with sick children" with unusual symptoms that include inflammation in the lungs and a high fever but no cough, according to local news reports. Dr Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, told DailyMail.com the news was "alarming." The alert around China was issued late on Tuesday via ProMed - a large, publicly available global surveillance system that monitors infectious diseases. It was a ProMed notification back in December 2019 that brought Covid to the attention of the world.