'“Yet in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, Chinese officials were busy arresting and punishing citizens for ‘spreading rumors’ about the disease, while online censors controlled the flow of information. Despite growing evidence of China’s mishandling of the outbreak and rising domestic Chinese outrage over the government’s censorship, Tedros remains unmoved. On February 20 at the Munich Security Conference, [he] doubled down on his praise, stating that ‘China has bought the world time.’ '
- Michael Collins, a research associate for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations,
The WHO and China: Dereliction of Duty.' (Asia Times (
Source, March 9, 2020))
'On 30 December, after seeing several patients with flu-like symptoms and resistant to usual treatment methods, Ai received the lab results of one case, which contained the word: “Sars coronavirus.” Ai, reading the report several times, says she broke out into a cold sweat.
She circled the words Sars, took a photo and sent it to a former medical school classmate, now a doctor at another hospital in Wuhan. By that evening, the photo had spread throughout medical circles in Wuhan, where it was also shared by Li Wenliang, becoming the first piece of evidence of the outbreak.
That night Ai said she received a message from her hospital saying information about this mysterious disease should not be arbitrarily released in order to avoid causing panic. Two days later, she told the magazine, she was summoned by the head of the hospital’s disciplinary inspection committee and reprimanded for “spreading rumours” and “harming stability”. ''A doctor in Wuhan has spoken out after seeing several of her colleagues die from the coronavirus, criticising hospital authorities for suppressing early warnings of the outbreak in an interview censors have been trying to erase from the internet.
In an interview with the Chinese magazine, Renwu, or People, Ai Fen, director of the emergency at Wuhan Central hospital, said she was reprimanded after alerting her superiors and colleagues of a Sars-like virus seen in patients in December.
Now that the virus has claimed more than 3,000 lives inside China, including four doctors at her hospital, one of which was the whistleblower ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, Ai has joined other critics risking their jobs, as well as detention, to speak out about conditions in Wuhan.
..
On 30 December, after seeing several patients with flu-like symptoms and resistant to usual treatment methods, Ai received the lab results of one case, which contained the word: “Sars coronavirus.” Ai, reading the report several times, says she broke out into a cold sweat.
She circled the words Sars, took a photo and sent it to a former medical school classmate, now a doctor at another hospital in Wuhan. By that evening, the photo had spread throughout medical circles in Wuhan, where it was also shared by Li Wenliang, becoming the first piece of evidence of the outbreak.
That night Ai said she received a message from her hospital saying information about this mysterious disease should not be arbitrarily released in order to avoid causing panic. Two days later, she told the magazine, she was summoned by the head of the hospital’s disciplinary inspection committee and reprimanded for “spreading rumours” and “harming stability”.
The staff were forbidden from passing messages or images related to the virus, she said. All Ai could do was ask her staff to wear protective clothing and masks – even as hospital authorities told them not to. She told her department to wear protective jackets under their doctor coats.
..
In the interview, Ai described moments that she will never forget: an elderly man staring blankly at a doctor giving him the death certificate of his 32-year-old son, or a father who was too sick to get out of the car outside of the hospital. By the time she walked to the car, he had died.
..
Over the last two months, Ai said she has also seen many of her colleagues fall sick and four die from the virus. One of those was Li Wenliang, whose death prompted an unprecedented wave of national anger and mourning.
Early on during the outbreak, public security officials in Wuhan said eight people had been punished for “spreading rumours”. It is not clear if Li was one of those and Ai said her reprimand came from her hospital. Still, several friends have asked Ai if she was one of those whistleblowers.
“I am not a whistleblower,” Ai told Renwu. “I am the one who provided the whistle.” '
- The Guardian,
Coronavirus: Wuhan doctor speaks out against authorities, March 11, 2020
Context(BBC) Coronavirus confirmed as pandemic by World Health Organization - 'He said he was "deeply concerned" by "alarming levels of inaction" over the virus.' - 'The case of the Netherlands..'The Dangerous Delays in U.S. Coronavirus Testing Continue, March 9, 2020
'Should have been a sense of urgency': Former FDA chief cites slow testing response, warns of spike in cases, March 10, 2020
(WHO, Covid-19) - Emergencies Program Director Michael Ryan called the situation 'a reality check for every government on the planet.'(BBC) - 'The death of Dr Li Wenliang .. China's command and control system of governance under Xi Jinping .. [that] structure is obviously broken.''..the perils that China is inviting by turning away from substantive economic and political reform..'How the coronavirus crisis destroyed the Xi ‘myth’, February 19, 2020