When the Ministry of Health announced the epidemic, it happened to be at the midpoint between the end of the first wave and the outbreak of the second. Outbreak sites around the world were all receding, and in many places the disease had even vanished completely.
At a cursory glance, governments everywhere found the situation exceedingly promising. Naturally, they paid no heed to the Bulgarian Ministry of Health's warning. Many even secretly sneered that Bulgaria's medical technology was still stuck in the Middle Ages—to be frightened like this by an ordinary flu!
The Washington Daily published an article declaring: this flu could only bring disaster to medically backward regions. The advanced United States had no need to concern itself with it. The colonial powers were the ones who should take precautions—their colonies were about to suffer a catastrophe. Bulgaria had targeted the wrong people!
The Sun even proclaimed: Had we somehow gone through another April Fools' Day? This was the funniest joke of the century. Influenza was receding across the world, yet the Bulgarian Ministry of Health was actually reminding everyone to prevent an epidemic?
Had they mixed up the date and released a report from several months ago? This was dereliction of duty by the bureaucratic class. It was recommended that Bulgaria's Ministry of Interior conduct a thorough investigation to prevent this sort of world-fooling incident from happening again!
No matter how the outside world mocked them, Ferdinand pretended not to see it. Every newspaper within Bulgaria uniformly reminded the public to take precautions against the epidemic. It was not that no one wanted to grab attention and chase publicity, but Bulgaria's press laws were simply too strict!
In a situation like this, once an epidemic broke out, any media outlet singing a different tune would be guilty