Wuhan doctor who was among the first to alert other medics to the spread of coronavirus 'goes missing'
By: jemma carr
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Wuhan doctor who was among the first to alert other medics to the spread of coronavirus has disappeared sparking concerns that she has been detained, reports suggest.
Dr Ai Fen said she faced 'unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded' by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital after she shared a picture of a patient report labelled 'SARS coronavirus'.
The image was widely circulated and made its way to whistle-blower Li Wenliang who raised the alarm about the bug, which has killed more than 41,000 people worldwide.
Dr Li was reprimanded by authorities for 'illegally spreading untruthful information online'.
Dr Ai gave an interview to a Chinese magazine criticising the hospital's management for dismissing the early warnings of the coronavirus but has not been seen since, 60 Minutes Australia reported.
After the show's investigation aired, a post on the doctor's Weibo account - a social media platform similar to Twitter - shared a picture with the caption: 'A river. A bridge. A road. A clock chime,' RFA reports.
Her rumoured disappearance comes after criticism was levvied at the Chinese government for lying and covering up key information during virtually every stage of its coronavirus response.
Beijing initially tried to cover up the outbreak by punishing medics who discovered it, denying it could spread person-to-person and delaying a lockdown of affected regions - meaning early opportunities to control the spread were lost.
Then, once the virus began spreading, the Communist Party began censoring public information about it and spread disinformation overseas - including suggesting that US troops could have been the initial carriers.
Dr Ai Fen said she faced 'unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded' by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital after she shared a picture of a patient report labelled 'SARS coronavirus'
Even now, prominent politicians have warned that infection and death totals being reported by the regime are likely to be wrong - with locals in the epicenter of Wuhan suggesting the true tolls could be ten times higher.
In the interview prior to her alleged dissapearance, Dr Ai admitted 'feeling regretful about not speaking out more' after four of her colleagues, including Dr Li, had contracted the virus and died while fighting the outbreak.
'If I had known what would have happened today, I wouldn't have cared about the reprimand. I would have told whoever and wherever I want,' said Dr Ai.
The interview was posted on Tuesday but quickly retracted from social media by its publisher People (Renwu) Magazine.
On 30 December, Dr Ai received a patient's report labelled 'SARS coronavirus'.
She said she broke out into a cold sweat after reading the lab results several times.
The SARS epidemic 17 years ago infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed over 800, according to the World Health Organisation .
The medic circled the word 'SARS' and sent a picture of the report to one of her former classmates and a group chat within her department.
Dr Ai said she alerted hospital authorities about the case.
'Later that evening, the stuff was shared all over the place with screenshots of the report bearing my red circle,' she said.
She added: '[These platforms] included the chatting group, which Li Wenliang shared the information with. I thought something bad is going to happen.'
Two days later, the Wuhan medic was summoned by the head of the hospital's disciplinary inspection committee.
Dr Ai said she faced 'unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded' and was accused of 'spreading rumours as a professional' by the hospital's officials.
Li Wenliang, 34, succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of Friday morning local time, despite attempts to resuscitate him. The ophthalmologist caught the public's attention after he was reprimanded by police and accused of spreading 'fake news' for warning on social media of 'SARS at a Wuhan seafood market.'
'I was in shock,' she continued.
'What did I do wrong? Knowing the fact that a significant virus has been found on a patient, how can I not tell when another doctor asks about it?'
Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was among eight people who shared Dr Ai's picture before being reprimanded by police and accused of spreading 'fake news' for warning the public of 'SARS at a Wuhan seafood market' on social media.
The 34-year-old medic succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of Friday morning local time despite attempts to resuscitate him.
Three other doctors who worked along with late heroic whistle-blower Dr Li Wenliang have also died of the disease after contracting it while fighting the outbreak.
Dr Ai said she doesn't think of herself as a whistle-blower: 'I was the one handing out the whistles.'
'This incident has shown that everyone needs to have their own thoughts because someone has to step up to speak the truth,' she added. 'The world needs different kinds of voices.'
The original article has been removed from the magazine's Wechat account but web users have been posting screenshots of it online.
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Portrait of a Doctor - according to the definition.
Trump is off topic
It is fascinating to watch right wing extremists zero in on China.
In fact, I seeded an article on my group that largely deals with this phenomenon. The obsession with China is shared by some of the worst far right groups in this country. Rather than being a coincidence, it is representative of a shared ideology.
Is that a "distraction" for you, John?
The obsession with China is shared by some of the worst far right groups in this country.
As opposed to the left's meaningless obsession with Russia/Russia/Russia?
You know quite well where Mr. Russell wants to focus the blame instead of China and their misinformation and perceived need to keep it quiet. Pretty damned sad...............................
Here we have a true Heroine, who tried to warn the world, now missing! It is sad!
I think there is certainly some news value in what China is doing, and if what they are doing is bad, that certainly is news.
What I am talking about is multiple seeds on NT every day about China, at a time when the US, our country, is suffering the worst mass health crisis since 1918. It is , well, strange, but explainable by realizing that the ones doing so much complaining about China are usually far right ideologues trying to make some strict point about communism or "socialism".
Ditto on the barrage of negative seeds on NT every day about the administration and ideologues perceived mishandling of the whole situation. It does no one any good to bitch about something they have no control over. It's a crisis and not a game. The US is doing all it can do to curb the effects on people and the economy and much of this is due DIRECTLY to the lack of Chinese warning and caring about the world wide potential for the spread. They must be held accountable and most certainly will be when the dust clears and the true costs to the whole world is calculated.
someone cannot be to blame for ANYTHING detriMENTAL to our country, so China, which we all know would never be honest with the numbers or totally with the ntruth, is now the 'whole' reason the US is failing in handling this pandemic.
Did you hear what Dr Birx said? I thought you wanted the country run by experts? Isn't she one of them? Or is she on the outs?
Yes, instead of being upset about this, let's follow the woke democrats like AOC and call waiving mortgage payments racist.
Segments of the left are so caught up in their race obsession that the virus and China's lies about don't even matter to them. They want to keep imagining racism behind every relief policy.
Communist China, just like North Korea, and the former Soviet Union before them, have almost never tolerated dissent or disagreement with communist party ideology. You deviate from the party, you and in some cases your family as well disappear, as in the case of those humanitarians in China.