[Tellingly, the family has received no bill from the hospital — consistent with the authorities’ pledge to cover the costs of all those infected with the mysterious virus, which started in a food market where wild and exotic animals were being sold for consumption.]
By Anna Fifield
 |
|
Hospital
staff wash the emergency entrance of Wuhan Medical Treatment Center,
where
some infected with a new virus are being treated, in Wuhan,
China,
on Jan. 22. (Dake Kang/AP)
|
BEIJING
— Chen Min was healthy when
she and her husband boarded a train from Hankou station in Wuhan at the end of
December, headed for a trip to the southern coastal city of Xiamen. When the
65-year-old developed a persistent cough and fever a week later, she assumed it
was just a common cold.
But the cold didn’t get better, and the fever
didn’t break. So she visited Wuhan Tongji Hospital again and again until she
was isolated in the infectious diseases unit on Jan. 15. She was dead within
six hours.
Although Chen had all the symptoms of the
coronavirus that is spreading across China and beyond, she is not counted on
the official list of those who have died as a result of the infection. Her
death certificate, which her family showed to The Washington Post, reads
“severe pneumonia.”
But hospital staff told her stepson, Kyle
Hui, that they strongly suspected she had “that” kind of pneumonia. At the
crematorium, where the workers were in hazmat suits, Chen’s body was
immediately incinerated without a proper farewell, and the vehicle it arrived
in was disinfected.
“My stepmother was warmhearted, and she was
generous in helping people,” Hui, a 40-year-old architect who lives in
Shanghai, told The Post. “She had many friends everywhere. How pitiful that in
the last mile of her journey, she had only a dozen family members saying
goodbye to her in such a hurry.”
Hui and his siblings believe their mother had
the coronavirus.
Tellingly, the family has received no bill
from the hospital — consistent with the authorities’ pledge to cover the costs
of all those infected with the mysterious virus, which started in a food market
where wild and exotic animals were being sold for consumption.
Chen had never been to the market, Hui said,
but she did go to the nearby station to catch the train to Xiamen.
She was never given a test to categorically
confirm whether it was the virus. Nor was her daughter-in-law, who cared for
Chen and now has low-grade symptoms. Her husband and elder son have not been
tested, either. Now Hui, having returned to Shanghai, has quarantined himself
from his wife and son, lest he also be infected.
Hui’s account, along with others that have
emerged in recent days, suggest that the coronavirus could be far more
prevalent than Chinese health authorities have acknowledged.
China’s National Health Commission said
Wednesday that more than 470 people have been infected by the virus. The
authorities in the province around Wuhan said Wednesday that 17 had died.
After playing down the prospects of the
pneumonialike virus being transmitted between humans, authorities have now said
that the infection of people who have never been to the market at the epicenter
of the outbreak shows that it is being passed among people.
As the coronavirus has progressed, the
National Health Commission has been making an effort to put out daily updates,
although they often come after midnight.
But many here are wondering if the government
is being as transparent about the virus as it claims to be.
Memories of the attempts to play down and
cover up the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 still
linger. The official response to more recent health scandals, including a
contaminated milk scandal in 2008 and a tainted vaccine scandal in 2018, have
not engendered greater confidence in the system.
China has learned the lessons of the SARS
epidemic, said Mao Shoulong, a renowned professor and director of public
administration at Renmin University.
“China paid a steep price during the SARS
crisis due to bureaucracy and red tape and can’t afford to go through that
again,” Mao said. “Rather than relying on a sloppy system centered around
government officials, we need one that gives priority to patients, doctors and
public health in an emergency like this.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has also become
involved in the response effort, on Monday issuing a directive to “put people’s
safety and health as the top priority and take effective measures to curb the
spread of the virus.” This order was emblazoned across state media.
“With the strong leadership of the Communist
Party of China Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core,” experts
were confident that they could control the epidemic, National Health Commission
Vice Director Li Bin told reporters Wednesday.
Xi’s association with the response marked a
sharp contrast to the official response to the swine flu outbreak that erupted
last year and caused pork prices to spike ahead of politically sensitive
holidays. At that time, that crisis was handled by the prime minister and other
economic officials.
Yan Jirong, a professor at Peking University’s
Institute of Political Development and Governance, said it was not surprising
that Xi has put his name on the response.
“It has become too massive and grave an issue
to be ignored,” Yan said. “We have learned a lesson [from SARS] so many years
back, so now we could draw from that experience and get more transparency.
There’s no denying that the Chinese government has made progress and managed to
get sustained trust from the people.”
Still, there is plenty of evidence that the
Communist Party is trying to control the narrative.
Chinese media have said that the first case
of viral pneumonia in Wuhan was reported on Dec. 8, but the local government
did not put out an official notice about it until Dec. 31.
Then, local authorities appear to have
delayed further announcements underscoring the danger of the virus until after
Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan, had wrapped up a political meeting held
from Jan. 11 to Jan. 15.
Some local journalists have said they were
stopped from reporting about the virus, and even social media posts from
government departments were deleted within hours.
There have also been other reports of people,
in addition to Chen, who appear to have died in the coronavirus outbreak but
are not included in the official tally.
Both of Xu Xinlei’s parents died nine days
apart in Wuhan from “lung infections” that she believes were coronavirus.
Her 72-year-old mother was hospitalized in
mid-December for a heart problem and developed a fever while admitted. She was
moved to the respiratory department, then quarantined. She died on Jan. 12, Xu
told Beijing News.
Xu’s father, who had been visiting his wife
in the hospital, then grew short of breath. When a scan showed he had a lung
infection, doctors told Xu to move him to one of “those” hospitals, she said,
referring to the institutions treating patients with coronavirus.
He died Tuesday. Neither of them were tested
for the virus. Both, like Chen, were cremated immediately.
This outbreak is extremely sensitive for Xi
and the ruling Communist Party. Not only is the coronavirus spreading, but it
comes on the heels of rising food prices overall and a slowing economy, in the
midst of continuing frictions with the United States, and as Beijing faces
political challenges in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
That means it could have political
ramifications.
“People are getting very angry in Wuhan, but
before, it was a local issue,” said Dali Yang, a political scientist at the
University of Chicago. “Now that the virus has escaped Wuhan, it has become a
national issue. So, given how centralized the system is, Xi has to act
decisively and put his imprimatur on this.”
Xi’s involvement could hearten some people,
Yang said, and help local leaders ensure social stability. But this could
backfire on him if the situation turns out to be worse than thought, or if it
has a big economic impact.
Some of this impact may take time to see.
China’s local governments, including Wuhanand
surrounding Hubei province, are being crushed by huge debt loads, and the
financial toll of this outbreak could push them over the edge.
Beginning early Thursday, all outbound travel
was banned from Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, in an unprecedented action
by China to try to contain the virus. The People’s Daily, the official
newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, reported that “no people in Wuhan …
will be allowed to leave the city.”
Hubei authorities on Wednesday asked the
central government for emergency assistance of 40 million surgical masks, 5
million protection suits and 5,000 infrared thermometers.
“If the disease was spread to some of the
poor provinces that are heavily indebted, it would mean substantial additional
outlays for local governments, especially at the municipal and county level
where the budget is really, really strapped,” said Victor Shih, an expert on
China’s political economy at the University of California at San Diego.s
That may mean that promised bridges and roads
will not be built, he said, adding to percolating discontent about the slowing
economy.
“Even if people are unhappy, they’re
obviously not going to rise up or anything,” Shih said.
The increasingly iron-fisted Xi, who has
scrapped term limits so he can theoretically rule this one-party state for the
rest of his life, has put in place strict controls and surveillance to make
sure there is no dissent.
“But if the disease continues to spread in
China, and if we see clear signs of policy failures to deal with this kind of
virus,” Shih said, “I think the educated public will be very disappointed and
disillusioned about the effect of concentrating so much power in the hands of
one person.”
Wang Yuan, Lyric Li and Liu Yang contributed
to this report.
Read more
