Another Wuhan doctor whistleblower, who was among the first to signal the spread of the Coronavirus in China, has disappeared like others who were detained by Chinese officials for revealing details.
One Chinese doctor, Dr Ai Fen, who is the head emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, has been missing like in similar occurrence with Dr Li Wenliang. Her revelations gave accounts of what were deaths and strain that beset medical staff to the People magazine, she courageously made her thoughts clear about the outbreak's handling by officials.
Dr Ai Fen and her ostracization
She related the sequence of events that happened following the discovery of the virus.
There were warnings and precautions that she suggested early in the pandemic but the hospital took action and tersely chastised the woman doctor for what they call an alarming rumor. They said she was ''illegally spreading untruthful information online' then causing panic."
Fen reported that she was told to keep quiet, right after a photo of a patient's results had SARS coronavirus circled with a red pen.
The show "60 Minutes Australia," claimed that Dr Ai was not around for two weeks after her public revelation. Right after the show, her Weibo account was updated with a picture and cryptic words caption, "A river. A bridge. A road. A clock chimes.
Her disappearance was a rumor that spread after she criticized the leadership of Xi Jinping. China is seen as covering a massive reality of the coronavirus outbreak for each stage it has gone thru and silencing dissent that was not in line.
Censure and keeping it under control
It was reported that medics were severely punished for giving relevant warnings without official approval. Facts like the person-to-person transmission was denied with lockdown coming too late and plunging Wuhan and other provinces in the grips of the overpowering contagion.
When news of the epidemic spread, the authorities were scrambling to silence the news coming from China. Immediately the internet lockdown followed, limited access to Twitter, Facebook was shut down with select sites that can be accessed online. Still, Dr Ai Fen's article was saved and translated into five languages, many were able to get a hold of it.
Some of the translated texts were gibberish and were emojis, Braille, oracle bone script, Morse code, song sheets, also Tolkien's language as well.
Dr Ai Fen's interview
Dr. Fen expressed her regret for not talking about the virus early especially that four of her co-doctors were already taken by the contagion She said,"Had I known how things would turn out, I wouldn't care if I got criticized."
She added that she would have revealed the truth. On December 30, she got a report from a case with SARS coronavirus marked on it. The SARS epidemic killed 800+ people infected 8000 cases, 17 years ago, but the coronavirus is much worse.
Later she got the photo and shared it in a group chat. It reached the administrators, and she was admonished for warning them and was called unprofessional.
Dr. Fen was doing her job, but in her mind, she just passed on the information. However, this Wuhan whistleblower has now disappeared.
