The last time the world heard about a coronavirus outbreak in China, in early 2003, it ended up spreading to more than two dozen countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia, sickening about 8,000 people and killing almost 800.

The illness was named severe acute respiratory syndrome, more commonly known as SARS and still remembered as a near miss. It could have been much worse, we were told — no thanks to severe mismanagement by health authorities in China and elsewhere.

The memory of SARS explains why reports of a newly identified coronavirus originating in China are concerning. The outbreak, originating in the city of Wuhan, has resulted in at least 25 deaths and rapidly spread to several countries, including, in one case, the United States. The World Health Organization has convened an emergency meeting and has been considering declaring the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.”

Responses to emerging viral threats such as SARS and, later, Ebola have been controversial. During the SARS outbreak, many political leaders were caught unprepared. The mayor of Toronto, a city disproportionately affected by SARS, publicly acknowledged his unfamiliarity with basic infection control measures — he didn’t even know what the World Health Organization was.