Li Wenliang. The Doctor Who Warned China For COVID-19 Pandemic

Image of Li Wenliang (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Tribute to commemorate Li Wenliang's death was spread on social media in China. Li was s a doctor who gave the early warning about a potential "SARS-like" virus. However, Li was under police pressure, and he was accused of giving false information. Li died last year, February 6, 2020.

Li died after exposed to COVID-19 while treating a patient in Wuhan. Li had warned fellow medics about an illness that looked like SARS or another disease caused by the deadly coronavirus. At that time there was no official term for COVID-19.

Some time after that statement, Li was investigated by the police. The police demanded that Li stop giving false information. Li's investigation was called because the doctor had "spread rumors".

Li Wenliang (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Li is an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the city in central China, where the first cases of the coronavirus were detected in late 2019. Dr. Li's death sparked a rare wave of grief and public anger over the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

When hospitals are full in Wuhan, the government is accused of underestimating the severity of the virus and of hiding the extent of its spread. Only when the anger reached its peak was Li released and honored as a hero by the Chinese government.

Since then, more than 105 million people have been infected with the coronavirus and 2.3 million have died from COVID-19 worldwide.

China's censorship of information

Image of Doctor Li Wenliang (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Freedom of speech is restricted in China, where the government has promoted an official narrative that rests on a successful response to the coronavirus outbreak. China does routinely censor comments on social media.

But Li's personal page on Weibo - a Chinese social media similar to Twitter - has become a rare space for users to express themselves about the trauma of the coronavirus pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of messages have been left in the comments section of his posts.

More showed up on Saturday, February 6. "Dr. Li, history and people will never forget you!", wrote someone in the comments on Li's last post.

"I thought everyone would forget about you after a year", wrote another. "I was wrong, you live forever in the hearts of the Chinese people".

Close to the hospital where Li works, Li Pan told Reuters: He was the first to tell us about the virus.

"He must have thought the repercussions would be enormous, but he warned them nonetheless. It was really bold".