A year after his death, the emotion is still there. Thousands of Chinese paid tribute on Saturday on social networks to doctor Li Wenliang, one of the first to have alerted to the dangerousness of the new coronavirus which appeared in Wuhan (center), on the first anniversary of his death from Covid -19 in February 2020.
Li, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, had shared with colleagues on social networks his concerns about the spread of a new coronavirus similar to SARS in December 2019. He had been summoned by the police, who had him accused of spreading “rumors”.
VIDEO. Coronavirus: a whistleblower doctor erected as a martyr in China
His death from Covid-19, which he had contracted after being infected by a patient, had sparked a wave of sadness and anger in the country. Chinese Internet users criticized on this occasion the management of the crisis by the Chinese authorities, accused of having lacked transparency.
“Forever in the hearts of the Chinese”
Li’s personal page on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, remains one of the few spaces where Internet users evoke the trauma of the outbreak’s beginnings, when millions of residents of Wuhan and Hubei province had been subjected to draconian confinement.
Thousands of messages poured in on Saturday on the first anniversary of the young doctor’s death, with many Internet users recounting what had become of their own existence.
“Dr Li, the weather is great today where I live … Everyone around me is doing their best in life, everything is fine, happy Lunar New Year,” wrote a user on Weibo, in a comment on the Li’s latest post, which had elicited over a million reactions, mostly after his death. “I thought everyone was going to forget you a year later,” added another net surfer. “I was wrong, you will live forever in the hearts of the Chinese”.
No homage to the hospital
In contrast, no sign of commemoration was visible outside Wuhan Central Hospital, where flowers and photos were laid a year ago by residents paying homage to Li.
Newsletter Morning essentials
A tour of the news to start the day
The city hosted a delegation of experts from the World Health Organization who came to investigate the origin of the pandemic. The delegation visited the Huanan seafood market, where patients were working among the first to be identified as suffering from Covid-19.
Experts also visited the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is at the heart of conspiracy theories about the origin of the epidemic.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
