Liu Wen (Chinese:刘文) is a doctor working in the neurology department of theWuhan Red Cross Hospital, who was one of the "whistleblowers" on theCOVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Liu studied clinical medicine in the Medical Department ofWuhan University and works in Wuhan Red Cross Hospital. At the beginning of theCOVID-19 pandemic, at 19:39 pm on 30 December 2019, he posted a message in his workWeChat group "协和红会神内 (Union Red Cross Neuro)", saying "Just now a case of infectious coronavirus pneumonia was confirmed in the Houhu District of the Second Hospital. Maybe the places around Huanan will be quarantined." "SARS has been basically confirmed. To our nursing colleagues: Don't go wandering around down there."[2]
On 31 December, relevant departments of the hospital interviewed him, asked him for his source, and told him "don't spread fabricated rumours". Liu wrote down the incident accompanied by two police officers. In news interviews afterwards, he said that at that time he heard that it waspneumonia bycoronavirus infection, that he had the impression that it wasSARS andMERS, and that he reminded medical staff to pay more attention to safety as he considered that there might be person-to-person transmission.[3]
On 7 February, the media outletCaixin visited Liu. Liu said that he was called by the police to the police station around 2 January.[4] The police asked for the source of the news and what happened, listed written transcripts, and then asked Liu to give his fingerprints, but he received no written reprimanding likeLi Wenliang did. Liu said the trip to the police station stressed him out, but he did not regret it. Caixin said that "whistleblower" Liu Wen, like the other two doctors who were interviewed by the public security police (Li Wenliang and Xie Linka), did not know whether he was one of the eight people put on the public notice.[3]