Li Wenliang

Li Wenliang (Chinese: 李文亮; 12 October 1985 – 7 February 2020) was a Chinese ophthalmologist who warned his colleagues about early COVID-19 infections in Wuhan.

On 30 December 2019, Wuhan Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (Wuhan CDC) issued emergency warnings to local hospitals about a number of mysterious "pneumonia" cases discovered in the city in the previous week. On the same day, Li, who worked at the Central Hospital of Wuhan, received an internal diagnostic report of a suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patient from other doctors, which he in turn shared with his Wuhan University alumni through a WeChat group.

Li was dubbed a whistleblower when that shared report later circulated publicly, despite his messaging to his alumni WeChat group to not spread the message outside of the group with the exception to only "remind their family members and loved ones to be on the alert". Li did not appear to have intentions of warning the wider public. Rumors of a deadly SARS outbreak subsequently spread on Chinese social media platforms; Wuhan police summoned and admonished him and seven other doctors on 3 January for "making false comments on the Internet about unconfirmed SARS outbreak."

The outbreak was later confirmed not to be SARS, but rather a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Li returned to work and later contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, from a patient who was not known to be infected. He died from the disease on 7 February 2020, at age 34. A subsequent Chinese official inquiry exonerated him; Wuhan police formally apologized to his family and revoked his admonishment on 19 March. In April 2020, Li was posthumously awarded the May Fourth Medal by the government. By early June 2020, five more doctors from the Wuhan hospital had died from COVID-19.