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Chinese doctors expose new information on coronavirus cover-up


The Chinese hospital where Li Wenliang worked, the first doctor who warned of the dangers of the new coronavirus, was hardest hit by the outbreak because it withheld essential information, reveals an investigation by Chinese magazine Caixin.

Among the 4,000 employees who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital, 230 died from Covid-19 infection, the highest death rate among health workers in Wuhan, a Chinese city that is the epicenter of the outbreak.

The head of one of the departments of the Hospital cited by Caixin, one of the few independent publications in China, blamed the authorities for putting lives at risk.

“At false information released by relevant departments [de que a doença era controlável e não era infeciosa entre seres humanos] left hundreds of doctors and nurses in the dark, who did everything in their power to treat patients without knowing the disease “, said the official, whose name is not identified by Caixin.

“And even those who fell ill could not report. They could not alert their colleagues and the public in time, despite the sacrifice. That is the most painful loss and lesson,” he said.

According to the magazine, the hospital was overwhelmed by patients with fever since the beginning of January. Several were taken care of by doctors not specialized in communicable diseases.

Doctors cited by Caixin blamed the administration for “incompetence”.

The head of the Communist Party at the hospital had no knowledge of infectious diseases and prohibited doctors from releasing critical public health information, the magazine found.

An internal Central Hospital document obtained by Caixin also revealed direct interference from Wuhan city health officials, which made it difficult for the hospital to report cases, especially between January 12th and 17th, when local Communist Party officials participated in meetings of the local legislative body.

The new revelations illustrate how Wuhan officials have acted to suppress information about the disease, which has already caused 4,500 deaths and infected more than 124,000 people in a hundred countries and territories.

Reports previously published by Caixin found out how, on December 30, Ai Fen, head of the emergency department at Hospital Central, shared the first analyzes of patients infected with a new “mysterious disease” through the instant messaging app WeChat, with friends from college and hospital medical staff, warning them to be careful.

That same night, several doctors in Wuhan replied the warning.

The messages circulated widely online, but several people, including Li and two other doctors at the hospital, were later punished by authorities for “spreading rumors”.

Ai Fen was summoned by hospital supervisors on Jan. 2, and punished for instigating panic and “affecting the general development” of Wuhan, according to the magazine.

The following day, Central Hospital asked all departments to monitor Ai’s team and demanded that they not disclose “confidential information” to the public, according to a recording that was leaked to the public.

The outbreak provoked strong popular discontent in China, with the country’s social networks filling up with direct criticism of the regime and calls for freedom of expression, in an unprecedented phenomenon in the Asian country, where activists or dissidents are often condemned for “disturbing public order. “or” subversion of state power “.

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