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Explainer | Dr Li Wenliang: who was he and how did he become a coronavirus ‘hero’?
- China’s health authorities and the public have offered their condolences over the death of the doctor, whom police tried to silence in the early days of the outbreak
- The father-of-one was warned off after telling an alumni group about a mystery illness at his hospital
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The death of doctor Li Wenliang at the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak has prompted tributes and anger throughout China.
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Li worked in a hospital in Wuhan, central China, and was among eight people reprimanded in the early days of the outbreak by public security officers for “spreading rumours”. He died on Friday morning after contracting the previously unknown coronavirus.
What is the controversy around Li?
Li, 34, was an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital. On December 30, 2019, he wrote a post to a closed group of medical school classmates on the WeChat social media site. In the post called “Seven cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market”, he warned about an outbreak of undiagnosed pneumonia at his hospital.
A screenshot of his post was leaked and circulated online on December 31, a day before the local health authority made an official announcement saying that 27 cases of viral pneumonia of unknown cause had been detected.
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On January 1, Wuhan police said they were punishing eight people for “spreading rumours”.
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