temporary field hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province [Xinhua via AP]
Wuhan is a megacity with 11 million people in Hubei Province, Central China. It’s a beautiful city that sits on the bank of the Yangtze River. It has the second largest number of universities in China. People from all over the world come here to study. Trains, planes always coming through. It’s the perfect location geographically, economically for virus to outbreak. It you want to pick a perfect place for the outbreak, this would be it.
Everything was going well until December. Starting December, people started falling ill with a mysterious disease with symptoms of fever, cold and a form of pneumonia in severe cases. It takes a little time for any new infectious disease to become aware that it is new. Local doctors suspected that the virus might have originated from city’s seafood and wild-life market.
By mid-December, more patients were falling ill and flocking into hospitals. Biologists studied the genetics of the Virus and told that the virus might have originated in bats and infected some animal which they suspect to be a pangolin and that contaminated meat of the infected animal in wild-life market is touched and handled by a person and that person got infected.By late December in 2019, as the number of cases increased, doctors began sharing information in private chat groups. Around 5 p.m. on December 30th, Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, messaged his college-classmates group on WeChat.
Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital.
Dr. Li:
“Seven
confirmed cases of SARS” were in quarantine at the hospital. It was an
unspecified coronavirus. The main mode of transmission is through droplets.
This can cause a special and can affect multiple organ systems. Please be
careful.
Dr. Wang:
That’s Scary. Is SARS Back?
That’s Scary. Is SARS Back?
Li wasn’t authorized to share the information, but he wanted
to warn his former classmates—mostly fellow-physicians—so that they would know
to protect themselves. He asked them not to share the news outside the group,
but soon the chat had spread—via screenshot, with Li’s name attached—throughout
and beyond Hubei Province, of which Wuhan is the capital. Li was irritated at
first, but he understood. But, he was really concerned about the situation because
in 2002, in Guangdong province of southern China, similar kind of Virus,
probably transmitted from Bats to Civet cats to humans caused 8000 infections
and 774 deaths over 26 countries. The mortality rate was 10%. It was deadly.
8 hours after alerting his fellow physicians at Wuhan hospital in a private chat group about Corona virus, an Ophthalmologist Dr. Li received a phone call on 31st December’2019 at 1:30 am summoning him to the offices of the municipal health commission, where his superiors were attending an emergency conference; there, hospital leadership questioned him about the WeChat message. Later that day, while at work, Li was called to the “inspection section”—essentially a political arm of the hospital for more disciplinary meetings. On the same day, Wuhan Internal Commission sends an urgent notice to all the hospitals on the treatment of pneumonia of an unknown cause. The notice also warned them to keep the outbreak quiet.
8 hours after alerting his fellow physicians at Wuhan hospital in a private chat group about Corona virus, an Ophthalmologist Dr. Li received a phone call on 31st December’2019 at 1:30 am summoning him to the offices of the municipal health commission, where his superiors were attending an emergency conference; there, hospital leadership questioned him about the WeChat message. Later that day, while at work, Li was called to the “inspection section”—essentially a political arm of the hospital for more disciplinary meetings. On the same day, Wuhan Internal Commission sends an urgent notice to all the hospitals on the treatment of pneumonia of an unknown cause. The notice also warned them to keep the outbreak quiet.
But Dr. Li and other doctors continued to share information.
Dr. Li:
Be careful. The WeChat group of our class is banned. The latest news is corona virus news is confirmed, and virus classification is in progress. Please don’t spread the word and ask your family and loved ones to take precautions.
Dr. Xie Lin Kai:
Do not go to Huanan Seafood Market in near future.
Do not go to Huanan Seafood Market in near future.
But China being a communist country, you don’t have a
freedom of speech like we have in democracy. China doesn’t like it when its
citizens spread rumors, even when it is the deadliest virus that can outbreak
and end the world. But this is not a rumor. On January 3rd, the local police station called
Dr. Li and informed him that he was required to sign and fingerprint an
admonition letter for spreading “untrue speech.” And he had been threatened
with arrest and 8 others who spread the news about virus, according to CCTV
which is the primary state broadcaster. Every whistle blower was silenced by
Chinese government. Millions of social media posts were deleted, chat groups
were banned, whistle blowers have been arrested. That was the crucial time of 2
weeks where China could have contained the virus, could have alerted the local
authorities to trace the infected people and treat them in isolation but it got
lost in the politics of communist government, information surveillance.
Around 7th January, Dr. Li treated a glaucoma patient with fever and “unidentified pneumonia.” Several of the patient’s family members had begun showing symptoms similar to hers. On January 10th, Dr. Li began coughing; he ran a fever the next day and was hospitalized, and was given a diagnosis of coronavirus. The general public was still largely unaware of any outbreak. 4 weeks after the first infected case, China alerted World Health Organization to several cases of unusual pneumonia caused by unknown Virus. On January 11, China announced its first death from the virus, a 61-year-old man who had purchased goods from the seafood market. Treatment did not improve his symptoms after he was admitted to hospital and he died of heart failure. Things are about to get worse.
It was the middle of January, Wuhan. It has been more than 40 days since the first registered case of a person infected with Corona virus. More than 20 have died already, hundreds of contracted the virus and thousands undetected cases. But things, now are about to get worse. Millions of Chinese travel to and fro from Wuhan in January to celebrate lunar new year. Perfect time for the virus to break out. Chinese government has already silenced the whistle blowers who first shared the information with others about the Virus. Millions of posts about viruses on social media have been deleted by the communist government. The false information released by the relevant departments - claiming the disease was controllable and would not spread from human-to-human - left hundreds of doctors and nurses in the dark, doing all they could to treat patients without knowing about the epidemic. In just 10 days, the situation went out of control. Chinese government alerted the WHO about the outbreak. On January 22, the death toll in China jumped to 17 with more than 550 infections. On January 23rd, Wuhan was locked down. Hospitals were flooded with patients. People were quarantined forcefully, even their doors were welded so that they could not get out. People were dying everywhere. The city resembled an apocalypse. Transport restrictions were imposed. Flights cancelled. But before the lockdown, millions of people have already travelled in flights to celebrate the lunar new year, came to Wuhan and went back infected with virus to their home towns, other cities across the globe in January. Virus has already spread across the globe.
By January 17th 2020, many countries United States, Nepal, France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan confirmed positive corona cases. On March 11th, WHO declared the COVID-19 as pandemic after seeing the exponential rise in many countries across the globe. As of 27th March, there are about 4 lakh people who are infected and 17,000 people have died across more than 100 countries. There are horrific visuals from Italy where highest number deaths per day were recorded. On 21st March alone, more than 800 people died. Many children were quarantined with infection and couldn’t attend the funeral of their parents.
Back in China, many cities were locked down. Millions of people were quarantined at home. On the evening of February 6th, Dr Li died, of complications of coronavirus. Chinese government has apologized to the family of Dr Li. Many of his colleagues lost their lives to Corona virus.
Around 7th January, Dr. Li treated a glaucoma patient with fever and “unidentified pneumonia.” Several of the patient’s family members had begun showing symptoms similar to hers. On January 10th, Dr. Li began coughing; he ran a fever the next day and was hospitalized, and was given a diagnosis of coronavirus. The general public was still largely unaware of any outbreak. 4 weeks after the first infected case, China alerted World Health Organization to several cases of unusual pneumonia caused by unknown Virus. On January 11, China announced its first death from the virus, a 61-year-old man who had purchased goods from the seafood market. Treatment did not improve his symptoms after he was admitted to hospital and he died of heart failure. Things are about to get worse.
It was the middle of January, Wuhan. It has been more than 40 days since the first registered case of a person infected with Corona virus. More than 20 have died already, hundreds of contracted the virus and thousands undetected cases. But things, now are about to get worse. Millions of Chinese travel to and fro from Wuhan in January to celebrate lunar new year. Perfect time for the virus to break out. Chinese government has already silenced the whistle blowers who first shared the information with others about the Virus. Millions of posts about viruses on social media have been deleted by the communist government. The false information released by the relevant departments - claiming the disease was controllable and would not spread from human-to-human - left hundreds of doctors and nurses in the dark, doing all they could to treat patients without knowing about the epidemic. In just 10 days, the situation went out of control. Chinese government alerted the WHO about the outbreak. On January 22, the death toll in China jumped to 17 with more than 550 infections. On January 23rd, Wuhan was locked down. Hospitals were flooded with patients. People were quarantined forcefully, even their doors were welded so that they could not get out. People were dying everywhere. The city resembled an apocalypse. Transport restrictions were imposed. Flights cancelled. But before the lockdown, millions of people have already travelled in flights to celebrate the lunar new year, came to Wuhan and went back infected with virus to their home towns, other cities across the globe in January. Virus has already spread across the globe.
By January 17th 2020, many countries United States, Nepal, France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan confirmed positive corona cases. On March 11th, WHO declared the COVID-19 as pandemic after seeing the exponential rise in many countries across the globe. As of 27th March, there are about 4 lakh people who are infected and 17,000 people have died across more than 100 countries. There are horrific visuals from Italy where highest number deaths per day were recorded. On 21st March alone, more than 800 people died. Many children were quarantined with infection and couldn’t attend the funeral of their parents.
Back in China, many cities were locked down. Millions of people were quarantined at home. On the evening of February 6th, Dr Li died, of complications of coronavirus. Chinese government has apologized to the family of Dr Li. Many of his colleagues lost their lives to Corona virus.
How can China justify their acts of communism? How can China
justify that death of Dr. Li who first alerted the authorities? Dr. Li was a
true hero who continued sharing information despite being threatened with arrest by
the police. Since Xi’s announcement on Jan 11th, at least three
hundred and fifty more people in China have been reprimanded or detained by the
police for “spreading rumors” about the coronavirus. How can China justify
their acts of suppressing information on social media? Did they ever realize
the importance of democracy? How can they justify their cover-up which caused
the global pandemic and killed thousands of people and infected lakhs of people
which brought the entire world into global health, economic and even existential
crisis? China has to answer the world. China is answerable to every person on
the planet.
Sreekanth Panjala
Science Popularizer | Writer
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