Doctors have been whistleblowers throughout history. They’ve also been silenced
Dr Li Wenliang tried to sound the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak. For centuries, doctors have been doing the same – leading to backlash and even death
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Dr Li Wenliang was an astute observer. Back in December, the Chinese opthamologist noticed that there were a series of patients who had upper respiratory infections in Wuhan that seemed similar to prior Sars outbreaks. He alerted colleagues on WeChat but was quickly criminalized by the state for spreading “false rumours”. It wasn’t until after the young doctor’s death from Covid-19, the same disease he had identified, that the Chinese authorities cleared him of wrongdoing.
Just a few weeks later, and a few thousand miles away, American doctors are experiencing a similar silencing. Physicians and nurses have lost their jobs during the surging pandemic for alerting media about shortages of masks and hospital equipment. At the highest level, the Trump administration has resisted the advice of Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a physician, when he called for a more urgent and intense federal response.
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