Five years ago today, the health authorities of Wuhan they announced the death of a man of 61 years old for complications of pneumonia caused by an unknown virus. It was the first official death for SARS-CoV-2the pathogen that would have triggered the most serious pandemic of the recent history of humanity, with beyond 7 million deaths all over the world. Very little information has been leaked about the victim’s identity, apart from the fact that he frequented the Wuhan fish market from which the circulation of the virus would have started.
Silence on the fifth anniversary
The fifth anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 it went under total silence in the official press of a country where the pandemic remains a topic taboo. The Communist Party has blocked public debate, whether it is the origin of the pandemic or the draconian measures which were imposed for almost three years.
On social media Weibo we have seen some homage to Li Wenliangthe young ophthalmologist who first at the end of 2019 had raised the alarm about the anomalous increase in cases of pneumonia in Wuhan. He had openly spoken about them WeChat of his thesis that behind the epidemic there was a coronavirusa hypothesis that had attracted him a sanction for the dissemination of prohibited news. The doctor had fallen ill with Covid himself and the February 7, 2020 he had died in hospital, a death on which the New York Times to understand if everything possible had really been done to save him.
The numbers of the pandemic in China
According to theWorld Health Organizationin China they were 100 million the official cases of Covid And 122,000 the victims, a figure which according to many experts is large underestimated.