A Chinese doctor who was one of the first people in the medical community to flag coronavirus as a public threat now has the virus himself — and he’s speaking out about how the Chinese government silenced him.
Not long after posting the message, Li was accused by Wuhan police of spreading rumors. He was called by hospital officials to explain how he knew about the virus and, a few days later, he was summoned to a local police station and rebuked for"spreading rumors online" and"severely disrupting social order" over his WeChat message.
The doctor went back to work."There was nothing I could do. [Everything[ has to adhere to the official line,” he said. Li ended up unknowingly treating a patient with coronavirus on January 10; he started coughing and developed a fever the next day. Li was hospitalized on January 12 and was eventually admitted to the intensive care unit and given oxygen support. He tested positive for coronavirus on February 1.
"The internet is not a land beyond the law ... Any unlawful acts of fabricating, spreading rumors and disturbing the social order will be punished by police according to the law, with zero tolerance," the police statement read. Richard Watkins, MD, an infectious disease physician in Akron, Ohio, and an associate professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, agrees. “[Li] was just looking out for the public good,” Watkins tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “To punish him is absurd and very short-sighted.”
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)
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Of course. After they got and now they’ve put everyone at risk. 👌🏾 realjohnbacon Every day I see these sad news on weibo! Anger and shock! We can't buy masks now, but the TV news tells us to wear them every day. What to do? No way, can only accept, wait, leave a little hope in the heart! 🙏 realjohnbacon A huge breach of duty, a betrayal of trust. They should commit suicide like the guilty Japanese official did, but they won't. They're just like them. Many, many people are suffering. On the Internet, many ordinary people in Wuhan post blogs asking for help.
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