Dr. Li Wenliang — an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, who was punished by city authorities for warning medical school friends about the coronavirus outbreak — has died after being infected with the virus.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on [the coronavirus],” the World Health Organization posted on its Twitter account.
On December 30 Li sent a warning to friends via Chinese text-messaging app Weibo that doctors in Wuhan had treated seven patients with a SARS-like illness after they had visited a seafood market in the city. While he asked that his messages remain confidential, hours later he saw that several of the messages had gone viral on Chinese social media.
Li was one of eight doctors who was punsihed by Wuhan authorities for attempting to warn others about the coronavirus. On January 3, Wuhan police reprimanded Li for “spreading rumors online” and “severely disrupting social order.”
The doctor later told CNN he could do nothing about the punishment because he feared he would be separated from his family. Li contracted the coronavirus in early January after treating an infected patient at the hospital.
The novel coronavirus has infected over 28,000 people, the vast majority in China, and killed over 560. In response, the Trump administration has banned foreign citizens who recently visited China from entering the U.S. and imposed mandatory quarantine measures on U.S. citizens and their families returning from the region.
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