Chinese doctor tries to warn everyone about coronavirus back in December, but was forced to remain silent

Dr. Li Wenliang, 34, tried to warn his colleagues about a new dangerous virus at the end of December last year. However, police have visited him demanding to stop spreading rumors.

According to The New York Times, the Chinese authorities withheld information about the spread and dangers of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus for several weeks, and doctors, such as ophthalmologist Li, were forced to remain silent.

On December 30, Dr. Li told his colleagues in a chat about patients with a strange viral infection and shared his thoughts that this is the same virus that caused the SARS epidemic in China and other countries in the early 2000s.

“So frightening,” one recipient said, before asking about the epidemic that began in China in 2002. “Is SARS coming again?”

In the middle of the night, health officials in the central city of Wuhan summoned Dr. Li, to understand why he had shared the information. Three days later, the police compelled him to sign a statement that his warning constituted “illegal behavior,” the source noted.

Wuhan police warned a total of eight doctors in early January for spreading rumors of a viral infection.

Dr. Li examined a patient with glaucoma on January 10, who later discovered the 2019-nCoV coronavirus. The doctor got infected from him and infected his parents. Now Dr. Li is being treated in the same hospital where he worked.

The Supreme Court of China found Wuhan police to be wrong on January 28.

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