On December 30, Wenliang Li posted in a social media group about a SARS-like illness that within weeks would explode into the coronavirus epidemic that has infected more than 25,000 people. He was reprimanded by police days later for rumor-mongering online. The Chinese Supreme Court later said the police were wrong to have taken the actions they did against Li.
He was admitted to a hospital in early January and later confirmed to have the coronavirus.
Above – Dr Li posted this picture of himself from a hospital bed on 31 January – a day before he was diagnosed with coronavirus
He was one of eight early whistleblowers.
He returned to work after the police issue. He caught the virus from a patient. He had been in hospital for at least three weeks.
On 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. His parents also fell ill and were taken to hospital.
On 20 January, China declared the outbreak an emergency.
Dr Li says he was tested several times for coronavirus, all of them came back negative. Nucleic acid tests confirmed coronavirus on January 30.
The fact that he was young and healthy and was likely following procedures to avoid infection shows that coronavirus is a serious problem.
Dr. Li Wen-liang passed away today. He was one of the eight earliest whistle-blowers on the outbreak, but was later arrested for "spreading rumors".https://t.co/JYAxYwhlrk
— Zhaoyin Feng 馮兆音 (@ZhaoyinFeng) February 6, 2020
