PUBLIC HEALTH

The cover story of China News Weekly put together a detailed timeline for the month leading up to 23 January 2020, the day that the city of Wuhan closed down. The story presented the local government’s response and what officials from the local and national Center for Disease Control and Prevention did in those critical early weeks, questioning if a decision to downplay the outbreak was made.

This story by Renwu Magazine sets out how Ai Fen became the first whistleblower. Ai Fen is a doctor at the Central Hospital of Wuhan. In December 2019, she was one of the first doctors to encounter patients infected with the virus that would become known as COVID-19. On 30 December, she received a diagnostic report of a suspected COVID patient, which she showed to an ophthalmologist at the hospital named Li Wenliang. Li then shared the report on the Chinese messaging application WeChat. After the report was widely distributed, Ai Fen was questioned by hospital superiors. Ai Fen also disclosed to reporters some details about the response of relevant departments in the early stage of the epidemic, including the deliberate suppression of information by hospitals and higher authorities.

While on probation, Pang conspired with her daughter to trade 260,000 of non-refrigerated vaccines to 18 provinces, and made 570 million RMB (75 million EUR) from the trade. The vaccines were feared ineffective due to the improper transport and storage, though unlikely to cause toxic reactions.

In 2005, an AIDS epidemic in Xingtai, Hebei province had over 200 infected patients, including children. Investigative journalist Wang Keqin used official government documents, several years of media reports, and interviews with doctors as well as 34 AIDS patients to prove that the epidemic was caused in large part by Xingtai hospitals which were using and profiting off privately-sourced blood for transfusions, a practice that was illegal but common and known by local officials. The story drew the attention of many across China since this practice was also occurring in other provinces and cities.

This news article accused the Sanlu Group, one of the country’s largest dairy producers, of selling a milk powder contaminated with melamine, a poisonous substance that sickened an estimated 300,000 children in China and killed at least six infants in 2008. After the article was published, the government identified a total of 22 companies whose dairy products were contaminated and initiated the strengthening of China’s national food safety standards.

The reporter who wrote this article, Jian Guangzhou, experienced threats and pressure from the Sanlu Group after the story was published, but became known among the public as a symbol of courage and integrity in journalism. In 2012, after being confronted with increased government censorship, he announced on social media that he was quitting his job as a journalist and now works for a media marketing company in Shanghai.

This story, published in February 2003, outlines the early days of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Guangdong Province and documents how the government’s silence led to chaos, confusion and widespread rumors. Journalists Chen Hai and Jiang Hua, reporting for Southern Weekly, describe the impact on society of the new and unknown illness based on academic, hospital and pharmaceutical sources.