TIMELINE 2019:
Late November - coronavirus appears and starts spreading in China undetected
Early December - coronavirus continues to spread silently.
4 December According to an official document on the website of United States House of Representatives, the House was fully briefed on the "largest pandemic exercise" ever to take place in the U.S. The exercise found that additional funding would likely be required. And that U.S. lacks sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity and/or raw materials for "needles, syringes, masks and personal protective equipment." The report notes that "In a pandemic global manufacturing capacity will likely not be sufficient to meet demand resulting in an inability to import adequate quantities." The report is fully ignored and impeachment is pushed instead.
5 December, Speaker Pelosi authorizes the Judiciary Committee to begin drafting articles of impeachment.
12 December "A new viral outbreak was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China."
13 December The Judiciary Committee votes along party lines to pass articles of impeachment
18 December The formal impeachment vote by the full House of Representatives passes by Democrat votes to approve articles of impeachment
26 December, coronavirus becomes detected then identified in a lab in China. Determined to be "most closely related to a bat SARS-like coronavirus". This is not widely publicized by China at the time
30 December Hero doctor Li Wenliang warns colleagues of the appearance of a new disease resembling SARS, a previous devastating outbreak. Chinese police promptly arrest him for "rumor mongering", he later contracted COVID-19 and died aged 33.
2020
2 January First large cluster of cases are laboratory confirmed in China 66% of them had direct exposure to the Wuhan market where the virus first appeared.
5 January 59 cases under treatment with 7 in critical condition
7 January The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues a travel notice Monday for travelers to Wuhan, Hubei province, China due to the cluster of cases of pneumonia
8 January Coronavirus discovery is officially announced by scientists in China. South Korea announces first possible case and immediately isolates a traveler from Wuhan.
9 January WHO confirms existence of novel coronavirus.
11 January First known death from coronavirus
15 January the articles are formally delivered to the Senate. Pelosi uses special commemorative pens to sign for delivery.
16 January articles are presented formally to the Senate. Senate is forced to set aside all other matters under the constitution. Senate is fully disabled for the duration and can deal with no other matters, as they are considered less important than impeachment.
23 January. China places 60 million people under quarantine and locks Wuhan off completely. The largest such measure in human history up to that point. Every politician and media figure is meanwhile fixated on opening arguments of the impeachment managers
23-30 January. Impeachment arguments continue with often live coverage for several hours per day. It's taking up close to 100% of all time and attention for politicians and media. Meanwhile China expands travel restrictions and other measures to hundreds of millions of citizens.
Cars are banned in Wuhan for private use and anyone with a fever is taken to forced isolation.
31 January: Senate holds vote on allowing further witnesses. Mitt Romney and all Democrats vote for witnesses without limitations. The impeachment trial could still be going on if this vote went through, disabling the Senate and any ability of the U.S. to react with legislation for months on end
31 January President Trump imposes a full travel ban to and from China. This not only includes citizens of China but of other countries as well who traveled there. This is one of the strongest and earliest measures taken. The media and Democrats immediately condemn the ban, many calling it racist. Joe Biden calls the ban "hysterical xenophobia" the same day it was announced.
5 February The Senate acquits President Trump finally ending the impeachment hoax which dominated U.S. attention at the most critical time, when the outbreak was still in its early stages.
5 February Mitt Romney votes for one of the articles ensuring that media attention is on his vote and his speech outlining reasons for it. This means the media is focused on impeachment for at least another week instead of the coronavirus .
Impeachment discussions continues to dominate less but still very significant amounts of media attention in February sucking away oxygen from other topics such as the coronavirus.
Sources for the dates:
Timeline of coronavirus pandemic 1 - January
https://archive.vn/wSx3E
Timeline of coronavirus pandemic 2 - February
https://archive.is/StIdR
Timeline of coronavirus pandemic 3 - March
https://archive.vn/uCYLx
Impeachment dates
Sources on impeachment dates 1
https://archive.is/ovuu0
Sources on impeachment dates 2
https://archive.is/N8OUm