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The Documentary: Wuhan: The beginning of coronavirus Covid-19

Dr Li Wenliang

12/05/2020 GMT

Wuhan: The beginning of coronavirus Covid-19

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Wuhan: The beginning of coronavirus Covid-19

In December 2019, Chinese doctors and officials grapple with a mysterious new virus

In December 2019, Chinese doctors and officials grapple with a mysterious new virus.

It is week one of the coronavirus. In this critical time, decisions were made that set the entire trajectory of the crisis.

The program uses exclusive interviews with a cast of characters who were on the ground at the hospital in the very beginning. Their stories, combined with striking audio from the heat of the moment, brings listeners into the critical turning-points that defined the crisis to come.

Listeners will meet Dr Li, the head of the ICU in Wuhan and one of the first doctors to intubate a patient with Covid-19. As his hospital became overrun with patients, he and his colleagues debated just how contagious the virus was, what should be told to the general populace, and the proper government response.

But for Dr Li, it is a personal crisis as much as a public health crisis. In the weeks to come, he would become quarantined away from his wife of just three months, lose countless patients, and witness his colleague and mentor succumb to the virus.

At the same time, independent journalist Wei Ao sneaks into Wuhan to report in the hospital frontlines. While Dr Li is busy saving lives, Wei Ao undertakes significant personal risk to uncover why officials were unwilling to admit the extent of the crisis. If only they had listened three weeks earlier, then perhaps everything would have been different. Separated from his infant son in Beijing, Wei Ao starts to wonder if he will ever get a chance to see him again.

Through the eye-witness accounts of Dr Li, Wei Ao, and several other characters, listeners will be able to experience the beginnings of the crisis more intimately than ever before. These are the moments that would change China and our world forever.

Producer: David Borenstein
Co-producer: Zhang Xian
Sound Engineer: Timothy Masters
Executive Producer: Neil Trevithick

(Photo:  Late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, a doctor who was punished after raising the alarm about new coronavirus died from the pathogen on 7 February. Credit: AFP/Getty)

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