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Purpose: This paper aims to review the information management aspects of the early months of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) coronavirus 19 outbreak. It shows that the transition from epidemic to the pandemic was caused partly by poor management of information that was publicly available in January 2020. Design/methodology/approach: The approach combines public domain epidemic data with economic, demographic, health, social and political data and investigates how information was managed by governments. It includes case studies of early-stage information management, from countries with high and low coronavirus disease 2019 impacts (as measured by deaths per million). Findings: The reasons why the information was not acted upon appropriately include "dark side" information behaviours (Stone et al., 2019). Many errors and misjudgements could have been avoided by using learnings from previous epidemics, particularly the 1918-1919 flu epidemic when international travel (mainly of troops in First World War) was a prime mode of spreading. It concludes that if similar outbreaks are not to turn into pandemics, much earlier action is needed, mainly closing borders and locking-down. Research limitations/implications: The research is based on what was known at the time of writing, when the pandemic's exact origin was uncertain, when some statistics about actions and results were unavailable and when final results were unknown. Practical implications: Governments faced with early warning signs or pandemics must act much faster. Social implications: If the next virus is as infectious as SARS-CoV-2 but much more fatal, the world faces disastrous consequences if most governments act as slowly as this time. Originality/value: This is one of the first analyses of information management practices relating to the pandemic's early stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]