---
title: "After China Censored This Wuhan Doctor, He Caught the Coronavirus"
description: "Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan, China, was censored after he warned med school classmates about the coronavirus. Now he's sick in the hospital."
date: "2020-02-04"
modified: "2020-02-04"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/china-censored-wuhan-doctor-caught-the-coronavirus"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
  - "Viruses"
tags:
  - "2019-ncov"
  - "china"
  - "disease"
---

# After China Censored This Wuhan Doctor, He Caught the Coronavirus

![Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan, China, was censored after he warned med school classmates about the coronavirus. Now he's sick in the hospital.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/china-censored-wuhan-doctor-caught-the-coronavirus.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Li Wenliang\</em\>*

Li Wenliang, a doctor working in Wuhan, China, was one of the first people to send out a warning about 2019-nCoV, the coronavirus outbreak that originated there.

But after his warnings — originally sent to a small circle of med school alumni — got out, he was [punished](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/china-censored-pandemic-social-media>) by the Chinese government. And now, [according to *CNN*](<https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/03/asia/coronavirus-doctor-whistle-blower-intl-hnk/index.html>), he's in the hospital for a case of the coronavirus.

Back when the outbreak first started making news, officials from Wuhan announced that they investigated at least eight people for [spreading rumors online](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/china-arresting-people-writing-coronavirus-online>) as part of the government's effort to control the narrative and flow of information about the nascent coronavirus. It [later became clear](<https://twitter.com/yaxuecao/status/1222573515183882245?s=12>) that all eight were doctors.

Li told *CNN* that he wanted to warn his friends. But he got into trouble because his first message — which cited test results that the outbreak could be a resurgence of SARS — went viral while his subsequent update, which clarified that the disease was a new coronavirus, did not.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Supreme People's Court has since criticized Wuhan police for investigating and silencing people like Li, according to *CNN*, as their warnings could have helped contain the outbreak.

"It might have been a fortunate thing for containing the new coronavirus, if the public had listened to this 'rumor' at the time," reads a Supreme People's Court commentary, "and adopted measures such as wearing masks, strict disinfection and avoiding going to the wildlife market."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)