There has been finger pointing at governments for failing to act quickly on the coronavirus. But the media also slowed its coverage at two key points: early February and early March.

Looking at data from Bloomberg that tracks 175,000 news sources, the chart shows that coverage spiked in late January along with cases in China and Trump’s order to cancel direct flights to the U.S.

In early February, the impeachment trial in the Senate, U.S. presidential primaries and talks on Brexit distracted many major media outlets from covering the outbreak.