Coronavirus kills Chinese whistleblower doctor - BBC News

Well, a man who has become incredibly well known around the world due to the corona virus has died. This is the Chinese

doctor

who tried to warn the medical community about the corona virus. Authorities told him to keep quiet before he was diagnosed with the virus weeks later. The virus itself here we can see the Chinese BBC reporting on this saying that Dr Li was initially declared dead at ten thirty nine local time on February 6 and that was reported by state media but initially it became more complicated , there was a great reaction in the Chinese. Social media picked up on this

news

and then journalists and

doctor

s on the scene who did not want their names used told the BBC that government officials decided to control the flow of information by ordering the doctor to be put back on life support. even though he was dead and changing official media reports from death to critical condition.

Well, that attempt to close the story has failed. The Chinese official media is now reporting on Dr Li's death and the background to this is that Dr Lee posted a warning in a group chat of doctors in December he said he had seen seven cases that he thought looked like the

coronavirus

. SARS which caused a global epidemic in 2003. The Chinese police then accused him of making false statements and seriously disturbing the social order which he was then forced to sign. a document in which the authorities said that we solemnly warned him that if he continues to be stubborn with such impertinence and continues with this illegal activity he will be brought to justice, that is how it is understood and below that dr.

Li had written "I Do" Even in January, officials in Wuhan, where the virus began, insisted that only those who collectively came into contact with infected animals could contract the virus. That was not true and no precise guidance was issued to protect doctors who had been in contact with infected people when we were told that dr. Lead became ill and finally on January 20, China declared an emergency related to the virus until the end of January and dr. Lee posted this photo with the words finally diagnosed, he confirmed that he had the virus and the photos of dr.

Lee in her hospital bed is going to become one of the defining images of this crisis despite China's efforts to manage this story Isabelle Hilton is from the China dialogue this is what China does that China increasingly seeks to control what that people know and that was the problem in the beginning you know if dr. Lee had been hearing at the beginning, if the authorities had acted at the beginning, we would not have seen this virus escape from Wuhan to all of China and then internationally, and now you know, however draconian the measures taken, you know that this is essentially close the stable. doors for people like dr.

Lee, who were sanctioned, I mean, after being interviewed by the police, had to confess to spreading rumors that could carry a five-year sentence in China. You know, they said this means that what the government fears most is the information that inconveniences dr. Lee's death has generated widespread anger on social media. The BBC's Stephanie Haggerty has been observing that there is anger about the confusion around this virus, not just because of its history and what happened to it, but because certain things may have been suppressed. criticized for simply doing his job, asking him, the message he sent to his colleagues was to tell them that it was safe to wear protective clothing and I think there was anger because he was reprimanded just for being a good, sensible doctor, another thing I found surprising after the La Today's story is that many of the reports that we have received from the Chinese authorities have been that the people dying from this virus have been elderly people or people with respiratory problems and here we have a middle-aged man who is apparently in very good condition. health before this virus apparently lost his life and that surprises you at the real risks that come with this virus, yes he was in his 30s it seems that way and by all accounts we don't know that he didn't do it . sharing so much about his health before he got sick, it seems like he was a healthy guy so I guess that's what people are worried about too and we can only go by what the Chinese authorities are telling us about who is dying from this virus me too.

I think the death of someone so high profile and seemingly so young is definitely creating fear, as the Chinese people mourn Dr. Li, the virus continues to spread. There are now more than 28,000 confirmed cases worldwide, 99% of them are in China, and 564 deaths have been recorded. confirmed that the World Health Organization also tells us that the virus is in these 24 countries around the world, the highest number of cases outside of China currently is in Japan with 45 and also in Singapore with 20 AIDS. Another country where the virus has reached is the United Kingdom. Third case being diagnosed Here's BBC health editor Hugh Pitt, a middle-aged man, we're told, in Brighton, southern England, fell ill.

He had recently returned from Singapore. We do not know his nationality. They isolated him in his house. positive with a new strain of

coronavirus

and was transferred to a London hospital, part of Thomas's Part of the Guidance and Thomas's Trust, which has specialist isolation units to care for people with infectious diseases similar to the Newcastle unit that cares for two patients already diagnosed. And with this diagnosis, does the broader advice change? The UK offers yes because it contracted this virus in Singapore, not China. The UK government has decided to extend its advice to travelers returning to the UK before this if they had been in China. and upon coming to the UK and developing symptoms, he was advised to self-isolate and call a helpline or call a doctor.

They are now saying that for some Asian countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, if you have returned and developed symptoms you must self-isolate, so that is a geographical extension of what they were telling UK visitors and travelers before the government on Tuesday of the United Kingdom advised all British citizens to leave China and today the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom responded by criticizing that decision, saying it was disproportionate and sowed panic. vice, the British site took professional advice from a blue field and the British sign also agrees with us, they said they will follow the words do not match the t's, now the broad view of the World Health Organization is that they do not It's good to close borders.

He maintains that people will continue to travel but will begin to lie about where they are from, making the disease more difficult to control. However, you will hear experts, like the one we are about to hear in the UK, defending the British. approach well, I think, frankly, it's a bit rich of the Chinese to turn around and say we're exaggerating, this is the country that now has 30,000 people, they've probably confirmed that. There's probably a big clinical iceberg there where those 30,000 make up the It's a small tip of that iceberg and there could be up to a hundred thousand people currently infected with it and they've built two new hospitals with a thousand beds each in about two weeks.

I would say that it is a pretty strong reaction. To what they must perceive as a fairly critical threat, our China is now committing extraordinary resources to try to contain this fire. Let me show you some of the most recent photos that came into the

news

room. First of all, this is a place in Bay Province. His name is Yi Chang and as you can see disinfectant is being sprayed all over the streets in an effort to control the virus. Of course, these photos are from Hong Kong. What you can see here on the street is an extraordinarily long queue, thousands of people queuing around the street. block to try and buy surgical masks to protect themselves from the virus back into the city itself and you can see the type of kit that medical professionals have to use to treat patients in some of these new purpose-built hospitals. that have been built in less than two weeks and then we have these extraordinary scenes: they call them fever camps in stadiums, gymnasiums and conference centers that are being re-equipped with thousands of beds to care for people who have contracted this virus between The new case confirmed today is a newborn baby in the city where the virus began, Wuhan, and this is important, it is the first time that such a small baby has contracted the disease and raises the possibility that the virus could be transmitted from mother to child . in the womb, although as you will hear this clip we must emphasize at this point that it is just the theory, a newborn baby is very vulnerable, as we all know, so it is possible that the baby may have picked it up during the birth process or while It was mom.

She was holding the little baby and the mother was symptomatic and was coughing and sneezing. We know that some viruses can cross the placenta. It's what we call vertical transmission from mother to child, but we don't know definitively with this virus at this time. In the world, at least a dozen laboratories are run by pharmaceutical companies and universities trying to develop a vaccine to try to protect people from this virus, and of course, the more they know about it, the better the chances they will have of create the vaccine and global health. The organization has today been outlining the main gaps in our knowledge of the outbreak.

We do not know what its natural reservoir is and we do not adequately understand its transmissibility or severity. To defeat this outbreak, we need answers to all those questions and EMP hits you. Again on the international effort to respond to the virus, the whu-oh at this stage has stopped short of declaring a global pandemic, what that tells us is clearly that it is a matter of great concern in China, but it has not spread as rapidly as far outside of China. and indeed England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Witte, in a briefing said that as long as this continues, other countries, including the UK, with the NHS, which is very well prepared, should be able to cope with a few dozens of cases or something like that.

So, if it becomes a pandemic and spreads widely to multiple health systems, perhaps without adequate measures to contain it, that's when it becomes a problem for everyone because of the magnitude of global travel, more people come and That will put more pressure. Regarding health systems, we are not yet at that stage, it is very important to say that I am glad that you mentioned this phrase because I hear it a lot: will it be declared a global pandemic? Won't it be declared now? I guess it's not just about how we describe what's happening if it's declared such that it then triggers certain responses, it's how it works, yes, it's moving from an epidemic in China to a pandemic that has a technical definition for medical authorities. which says it is spreading rapidly and in some cases.

Sense is out of control in several different countries. At that stage, the WHO would have to publish new guidelines, but each health system would have to work with money through the WHO, focusing on those who need it most to try to isolate cases. and take care of them, but certainly that is a concern, but it is not at that level as things are, it is very possible that if it stays more or less where it is and then the case numbers start to fall, then everything will go in another direction .