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China: death of the doctor who revealed the SARS epidemic in 2003

2023-03-15T17:31:02.966Z


The doctor who helped reveal the extent of the SARS epidemic in 2003, then concealed by the Chinese authorities, died in...


The doctor who helped reveal the extent of the SARS epidemic in 2003, then concealed by the Chinese authorities, died at the age of 91, his family confirmed to AFP on Wednesday March 15.

A doctor in a Beijing hospital, Jiang Yanyong revealed to foreign media at the time the existence of hundreds of previously hidden cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The outbreak ultimately killed just over 800 people worldwide.

Eight months of house arrest

Jiang Yanyong's funeral took place on Wednesday, his daughter-in-law Cui Hong told AFP, who said she was "not

allowed

" to attend.

She said he died on Saturday.

The doctor's approach in 2003 irritated the authorities who were trying to maintain secrecy about this public health problem and its magnitude.

The government then came under heavy international criticism.

In 2004, Jiang Yanyong wrote a letter to then-Prime Minister Wen Jiabao asking the government to reconsider its judgment on the 1989 pro-democracy and anti-corruption protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The evening of the repression of the movement by the army, which had made hundreds or even more than a thousand dead, Jiang Yanyong had seen flocking to the emergency room of his hospital several dozen wounded and had been marked by it.

His letter had earned him eight months of house arrest.

Read alsoOrigin of the Covid: three years later, the mystery remains

“He was a doctor who dared to tell the truth”

The media of mainland China, subjected to a strong control of the authorities, did not evoke the death of the former doctor, member of the Communist Party.

Internet users on the Weibo social network, however, paid tribute to him.

He was a doctor who dared to speak the truth

,” wrote one user.

Information about disasters and public health crises is often tightly controlled in China.

At the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, doctors in Wuhan (central China) were reprimanded in January 2020 by the local police for having, according to them, spread “rumors

.

They had actually discussed on an online messenger the discovery of patients with SARS-like symptoms.

Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, one of the doctors summoned by the police, died a few weeks later from Covid-19, which sparked a wave of public outrage.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-03-15

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