Chinese doctor who sounded alarm on virus dies; death toll increases to 636

Sad, truly sad. Even in regimes like the one in China there are people willing to stand up and say what needs to be said!

I hope those officials who called him out on this are held accountable as well!

As an addendum to my above post; does anyone know where the leader for life Xi Jinping is now? It appears Xi is hiding like a coward while this hero doctor Li worked on the front lines.

People are starting to ask;

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/05/asia/xi-jinping-china-wuhan-virus-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/rumours-swirl-after-president-xi-21445247

But it appears Xi (on January 27th) thought it was more important to ban open discussion about the virus.

https://www.theonion.com/xi-jinping-vows-to-combat-coronavirus-by-making-it-ille-1841274319

The man who wants to be a hard core leader of China appears to be a coward and has run away in a time of crisis.

@Akie; I do not trust the only about 400 deaths and I think there are orders of magnitude more. For the sake of your fellow Chinese countrymen and the rest of humanity I sincerely hope you are right (these numbers are right) and I am wrong. As a matter of fact I would be very happy to be wrong.

Dr. Li; You are a hero.

You worked tirelessly to try to save your fellow citizens even after the Chinese government threatened you with arrest for daring to warn of the possibility of a "new SARS" in early January.

May this man rest in peace with Dr. Urbani.

Awful news and shame on the authoritarian regime for allowing this to happen.

The man was just doing his job.

Shame on you, Xi and your henchmen.

@Yubaru -

I hope those officials who called him out on this are held accountable as well!

I agree; if they would have listened to Dr. Li and acted on his warning rather than trying to shut him up there is a very good chance this could have been controlled. Now we will never know.

Like someone mentioned earlier, if this young doctor was initially healthy before his infection and later death then it is a little unsettling.

Are the hospitals not equipped with adequate staff, supplies, or both? Are there a lot lot more unreported cases and deaths? Did they allow this doctor to die to hush his dissent?

I read an article about the CCP pushing journalist from various media companies to put out tons of articles to reframe the story of coronavirus and make Xi look good. Basically, the same type of propaganda that NK is known for.

This Dr.'s death may be the spark that will lead to change in China that CCP has feared for so long.

@akie

there are only about 400 death

You have to stop getting your info from Xi akie, it's 635 deaths and counting. It's not slowing down either, still exponentially infecting people in China, and total infected in Japan now stands at 45.

China has reacted, after initial denials, to contain the virus.

Yet, this virus seems to be fatal for doctors as well as the layman.

Sixty million in China under quarantine and new cases being reported globally everyday.

Dr Li’s death is hopefully not in vain.

Goes to show there is no justice in the world, you do good, you suffer.

The incompetent people at the CCP will get away and maybe even reward themselves but the real hero gets persecution and finally death!!!!

Chinese government tried to censor him.... really crappy outcome for all.

Truly scary if a man at 34 with what we could assume was a healthy immune system succumbed to this virus.

It's no longer just the elderly and very young at risk.

That poor man. He deserves to be sent off with a hero's goodbye. Unfortunately, I doubt he'll get it. RIP.

Are the hospitals not equipped with adequate staff, supplies, or both?

Both, there are lots of reports about people dying in the street and at home because there is no where to put them in hospitals.

Reports of authorities rounding up sick people to take them to quarantine centres, though appears draconian, is also a subterfuge, because there just isn't enough beds and people are told to stay home when they do present at quarantine centres.

It's really out of control, and Xi has consolidated his grip by centralizing controls out of his office. He's sent hundreds of propaganda journalists out to 'get good messages out' whilst barking orders at front line people.

...and it still has to get worse before it even gets better.

Japan is very foolish with its border controls, trying to appease a dysfunctional China. Just look at the infection rate vs even HK or Taiwan.

The WHO should have been this doctor's champion! Instead, despite visiting China and meet with Xi Tedros chose to go communist politics.

I can't see how the WHO can survive in its current form, if and when this situation is over. If it does then I can see a very fractious and untrusting world going forward.

Wuhan health officials summoned Li in the middle of the night to demand he explain why he shared the information, and police later forced him to sign a statement admitting to "illegal behavior,"

Unbelievable. Those officials need to sign a statement admitting they were wrong as hell, and be punished.

China is big, and has 1.4 billion people, yet, in this very fast spread virus, there are only about 400 death. 

We don’t know how many deaths have occurred. There have been more than enough reporting about bodies getting secretly cremated..

With the CCPs history of lying and hiding facts, nobody knows the scale at how much this virus has spread.

This seems very suspicious to me. Did he know some secret information? RIP.

There is no official info, but the internet reported he was very very sick and on ECMO (basically life support because his heart and lungs no longer provided sufficient blood flow or oxygen. Many weibo posters are saying it's because he 'DIDN'T' receive care when he first presented with symptoms, instead the police spent precious time torturing him to get a written confession (that he spread false information).

@Sh1mon; I am also very perplexed about the response by WHO which appears to be politically motivated. Their advice and announcements seem contrary to what they have done in the past and what would be expected.

Unfortunately is seems like the Chinese government may well be concealing the official numbers. There are a number of reports from doctors within China casting doubt on the official figures which many suspect are dubious to say the least.

More concerning is that the Chinese web giant Tencent posted the figures as 154,023 infected and 24,589 dead on their virus tracker, before quickly being altered.

*Minutes later, the site was updated to reflect official government numbers, however web users noted it was the third time such a correction had been made.*

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/image-deleted-from-tencent-sparks-doubt-about-official-virus-tally/news-story/54736a213dddd2e6d8d9d0b382ca34b6

This story seems to be everywhere, except I can't find it on any of the Chinese news pages.

Their advice and announcements seem contrary to what they have done in the past and what would be expected.

Not only this ^, they appears to have no response let alone having a workable and tactical [NOT POLITICAL] strategy for dealing with the intensity of this virus compared with SARS. Have they even acknowledged CoronaV is much more virulent?

Have a look at the differences on the graph.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/6000-quarantined-italian-cruise-ship-due-virus-scare-russia-closes-border-china

China says it's under control then it must be under control. If it's somewhere else the number would be higher because they would be reporting real numbers. I have utmost confidence in China to conceal anything and everything they want.

People and their governments need to step up and denounce the CCP (not the people of China) for this Pandemic. It could have been contained if the CCP had been more open and honest from the beginning. They weren't. Every death is on them. They own this.

Sounds suspicious to me.

Toasted Heretic, if this happened in your country, it will be 1000 times worse.

Pure conjecture.

China is big, and has 1.4 billion people, yet, in this very fast spread virus, there are only about 400 death.

I'm afraid I have no faith in what the regime claims, given that it initially tried to cover up and play down the outbreak.

Unfortunate but it shows the power of the nation.

It's easy for a totalitarian state to use their power as a weapon against people like Dr Li, but the real power lies with the people. I hope they will use it to dismantle Xi's apparatus of oppression.

A (presumably) healthy 34 year old physician dying from this disease is very concerning, especially when he got supportive medical care immediately.

Here is why Wuhan virus takes 2 weeks to show symptoms:

It has been confirmed that this coronavirus produces a protein that blocks replication of antibodies and destroys immune response. When you feel sick from something, it is the immune response that makes you feel sick, not the virus or pathogen itself.

At the same time this virus inhibits immune response, it produces a second protein that causes all the targeted cells to stop whatever they are doing completely, and dedicate their lives to producing more viruses. Eventually, this overwhelms the immune response inhibitors and the immune system realizes there is a problem and people eventually "feel sick" AFTER they are half eaten.

"If the officials had disclosed information about the epidemic earlier," Li said in an interview in the Times via text messages, "I think it would have been a lot better. There should be more openness and transparency."

The good doctor tried to save lives, but the Chinese officials were more concerned about saving face than saving lives

Shame on them and their stupid system that promotes getting favorable reports from local officials, in lieu of the true state of affairs (if ya give bad news to your higher-ups, ya get demoted)

It could've been controlled earlier and saved more lives. More than 600 deaths and counting in only a month, and there's no sign it's stopping anytime soon (SARS had 439 deaths but that's over 9 months, so they're now doing even worse than before)

The official tally of infection cases is severely under-counted: Too many patients are not being counted. There are not enough test kits. Not enough doctors. Not enough hospital beds. Not enough medicine. Not enough masks. Not enough cars to take patients to the hospital. How many people have already died in their homes without being tested

And even the good doctor's death, they can't even leave that alone without censoring the discussion about the truth of what happened to him. It's like they didn't even learn from his sacrifice

Like all figures published by the Chinese government, I would take the 636 with a grain of salt.

Low-trust societies have a problem trusting that someone is "doing the right thing" without trying to gain personal advantage.

Feel slightly bad for the people trapped on cruise ships. We've only been on one cruise and even without any virus, always felt trapped. In 7 days, only got off the ship 2 days for about 7 hrs. The ship left port daily usually around 6pm, to avoid overnight fees and prevent passengers from enjoying the local night life (cheap alcohol) at each destination. The different destinations were only 50-100 miles apart, but the ship would travel in circles at sea overnight to have better stabilizer control. Trapped, I say.

Toasted Heretic, if this happened in your country, it will be 1000 times worse. China is big, and has 1.4 billion people, yet, in this very fast spread virus, there are only about 400 death. Unfortunate but it shows the power of the nation.