The Price of Oppression

As the new year dawned, an insidious enemy was hard at work. Tiny yet resourceful, it was multiplying, diversifying—and infecting. It did so unobserved by the watchful eyes of the Chinese regime, whose attentions were consumed by an altogether different threat: Li Wenliang, a 33-year-old ophthalmologist at a Wuhan hospital. On December 30, Li had shared, via WeChat, CT scans and test results of patients who presented unusual respiratory symptoms. By January 3, the Wuhan police informed Li that he had to affix his fingerprint, in lieu of a signature, to a formal letter of admonition, promising not to spread “false rumors” of a SARS-like respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus. On January 6, he died of it.