and professor zhang were in the middle of a long-term project on respiratory diseases at wuhan central hospitalents were sent by high- speed train to zhang's lab. at around 2:00 a.m. on the 5th of january, a breakthrough: zhang had obtained the full genetic sequence of the virus. >> and i was driving to breakfast and he called me on the car phone. his team had worked very hard, and so he was very proud, obviously, of the work they'd put in. on that very day, he was, he was working to try and get information released as soon as possible, so the rest of the world could see what it was and so that we could get, you know, we could get diagnostics going. >> narrator: it was important confirmation that the virus was very similar to sars, and therefore likely transmissible between humans. zhang's office immediately wrote to the national health commission, advising preventative measures in public places. zhang and holmes wanted to make the sequence public right away-- but they couldn't. >> there was an official memorandum that had gone through, saying that he, we were, we were not allowed to do this. a