(Newswire.net — February 7, 2020) — A Chinese doctor, who alerted about China’s new coronavirus, died of it, emphasizing the depth of a crisis that has killed at least 630 people.
When Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, tried to alert colleagues of a possible outbreak, police came to him and warned him to stop “making false comments”, BBC reports.
Dr. Li was working at the epicenter of a new virus outbreak in December, when he noticed seven cases of a virus he thought resembled Sars – a virus that led to a global outbreak in 2003.
The cases are believed to have originated from the Seafood Market in Wuhan, and patients were quarantined at the local hospital.
On December 30, Li sent a message to fellow doctors in the chat group, warning them of the epidemic and advising them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.
What Dr. Li didn’t know at the time was that the disease he warned his colleagues about was a whole new type of virus named corona.
Four days later, he was visited by Public Security Bureau officials who instructed him to sign a letter, in which he was accused of “spreading fake news” and “severely disrupting public order.”
He was one of eight people police said were under investigation for “spreading rumors”.
In late January, Dr. Li posted a copy of the letter on a social network explaining what had happened. Meanwhile, local authorities apologized to him, but that apology arrived too late.
For the first few weeks of January, Wuhan officials insisted that only those who came in contact with infected animals could get the virus.
No guidelines have been issued to protect physicians.
But just one week after being visited by police, Dr. Li treated a woman who suffered from glaucoma. He did not know that she was infected with the new virus.
In a post on Veib, he describes how he started coughing on January 10, got a fever the next day, and ended up in the hospital two days later.
His parents also fell ill and were taken to the hospital.
It was only ten days later – January 20 – that China declared a state of emergency because of the outbreak.