Okay, I will directly answer your question.
HFRS may have been in China and other parts of the world for thousands of years, but new varieties are constantly being discovered. Here some that have been identified since 1976.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6940369/
In addition, the ability of labs to produce new viruses has only existed for a few decades.
Now you answer my question: If new variety of HFRS was being transmitted between humans in China, would the government promptly admit it? Or would they downplay the risks the way they did with SARS and COVID?
