Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been forced to rapidly increase the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in Wuhan under intense public pressure, the real situation of the pandemic and patients in Wuhan are dramatically worse than the official narrative.
Through interviews and investigation, The Epoch Times found that patients in Wuhan and their families have been forced into desperation due to cross-infection of Wuhan coronavirus as well as the quarantine itself.
Prior to the CCP’s recent clampdown, The Epoch Times tried to speak on their behalf: “help us!”
On Jan. 26, the CCP began a new round of censorship operations following a two-month campaign to conceal the epidemic situation and arrest netizens for disclosing information.
The CCP has threatened to arrest and sentence people for publishing “rumors about the new coronavirus pneumonia,” according to a WeChat announcement and a circulated notice from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and the public security bureau.
WeChat, the most widely used social media platform in China, has actively blocked any information about the coronavirus which is inconsistent with the official reports. It even requires all netizens who post help request messages on WeChat to authenticate with their real names; otherwise the messages will be deleted.
For the vast majority of people who rely on media outlets such as WeChat to obtain information beyond official propaganda, this is equivalent to depriving the last bit of their rights to the truth.
Such censorship is even more deadly than sealing the city of Wuhan, because it means that many Chinese who (may) have been infected with the new coronavirus will not only be forced to wait for death in the absence of medical care and medicine, but even their desperate efforts to save themselves may be cut off by the CCP.
On Jan. 28, before the CCP’s stepped up efforts to silence speech, The Epoch Times interviewed and recorded Wuhan residents’ help requests on social media.
Wuhan Resident: ‘We Have No Way Out’
Ms. Sun, who goes by the alias “Jacky-gaga,” told The Epoch Times, “My family of four lives in Qiaokou District of Wuhan. My mother is 50 years old. She went to People’s Hospital of Dongxihu District in Wuhan due to a fever. Her test result revealed viral pneumonia. The doctors at first put my mother in quarantine, but the hospital didn’t have a bed for us. My mother’s illness is serious, she needs to be saved, and we are pleading for public attention.”It remains to be seen whether Wuhan being sealed off will be an effective measure against the pandemic, but many of the city’s residents who have been or are suspected of being infected are in trouble.
Ms. Sun called the community service center and local Health Commission, but no one helped her. “There are cars in the community, but they don’t send patients for medical treatment. We have to pay high prices for an unlicensed taxi to send my mother to the nearest government-designated hospital, Dongxihu Hospital.”
“Wuhan is closed down and traffic is cut off, so we can’t get to the hospital farther away. Besides, it is stipulated that hospitals do not accept patients from other districts, so we have no choice but to go to the nearby hospital.”
“Dongxihu Hospital had no beds, they just called an ambulance to send my mother to Taikang Hospital.”
However, having ambulances does not seem to offer any hope for patients or their families. “The ambulance was just dragging people to the hospital,” Ms. Sun said. “Even after we went to Taikang Hospital, there was no solution. We have to wait. Taikang Hospital had no beds either. The hospital refused to accept my mother and we had to go home.”
“A lot of people have been infected, the ambulance was full,” Ms. Sun told The Epoch Times. She said netizens told her that they could only go online for help now, hoping that the media would intervene and attract the government’s attention.
“I had to post a message for help on WeChat. I left my phone number,” Sun said helplessly. “We have no way out.”
‘I Beg the Government to Arrest Me If It Can Save My Parents’
“I beg you to find someone to refute this rumor, and then the police will arrest me, and the government will look for me, as long as my parents can be saved. Please save my parents,” Lin, who goes by the alias “a seedling at Taihe 18,” posted on his WeChat on Jan. 28.Ms. Lin, who has been verified by her real name on WeChat, posted a message at 1:48 p.m. on the same day, saying, “This is what Wuhan is like now. Finally, the ambulance sent (my dad) to the hospital, but the hospital does not even have an oxygen bag. (Patients) can only be put on the ground in outpatient department. My dad is dying. Severe viral pneumonia, respiratory failure, severe diabetes. My mother was also diagnosed with viral pneumonia a week ago. I don’t know if they can make it.”
At 9:16 p.m., she posted, “So far, dad is still lying in the outpatient department, and the food is not eaten. His situation is getting worse and worse. I really don’t know what to do.”
In the early morning of Jan. 29, she continued to post from the hospital, “12:40 am, still unable to fall asleep. I keep making phone calls based on the channels you all have provided, and do whatever I can. Yet there is still no way out. My parents are still lying in the outpatient department.”
Since Jan. 26, Yu, who goes by the alias “a bottle of salt soda water,” has been on WeChat calling for help for her father, who contracted Wuhan coronavrius.
On 27 Jan., a netizen who used real name posted on WeChat: “After sleeping for a while, I feel a bit of a fever. Are there any locals who are willing to send me some medicine, oxygen bags, and a thermometer? I called 110 (local police number) and they told me to ask community service center. I called 120 (emergency number) to connect to a hospital. The community service center also reported my situation. I have no other way out now. I can only hold on, waiting for the hospital to accept me. My father can’t get out of bed now.”
“If anyone thinks I’m spreading rumors, I hope you can hurry up and ask the police and the central government to arrest me.”
At 4:11 p.m. on Jan. 27 in Wuhan, another netizen was waiting in line at the hospital when he posted, “After 120 sent (him) to the hospital he can only be put on the ground. My father is dying. I don’t know who can save him.”
Three and a half hours later, he continued to post, “Two (kind of) cars I saw the most today, one was black and one was white. (referring to funeral vans?) My father is sitting in the aisle now. I don’t know how long he can hold on. ”
He wrote in despair, “I beg you to send someone to refute this rumor. I beg the police to seek for me and the government to seek for me. Thus my father may be saved. I have details on my WeChat. Please help my father everyone.”
‘We Have to Sit at Home and Await Death’
Hu Weili, a teacher at Hangzhou City, returned to Wuhan this year to celebrate the New Year with her parents. However, she never expected that the Wuhan coronavirus, which the government kept describing as “preventable, controllable, and treatable” would become a disaster that kills so many people in the blink of an eye.To add to her despair, her father contracted coronavirus in the hospital, but had nowhere to be treated, and most of the adults in her family are now suspected of having the disease. The family had to stay at home and wait to die.
She wrote in a help request post on her Weibo, “My father started dialysis last December. On Jan. 18, my father came back from dialysis at Puren Hospital with a fever... On the afternoon of Jan. 27, my father was diagnosed with the new coronavirus, but now my father is at home with no one to take care of him.”
“Now I have had a fever for three days, my mother has a fever too, and so does my sister-in-law. We have no one to take care of us… we can’t go out... we can only sit at home and wait for death.”
Hu called for help. “[The government] just doesn’t care. Even diagnosed patients are left alone! There are also three underage children at home! How can my family live like this? How can we live? Please help us! My contact number is 13606717635.”
Hu Weili is hardly alone. Wuhan resident Ms. Yu’s family is also trapped in despair. They are told by the government to essentially ‘wait for death at home.’
On Jan. 27, Ms. Yu’s children posted a help request post on overseas social media, “My mother contracted Wuhan pneumonia and the hospital hid her illness. She was in bed for 12 days with high fever... The Communist-appointed community center director said he could not arrange a hospital bed and suggested waiting to die at home. My father was also infected and had to take care of my mom. They have no medicine, no food, no treatment. Please help them!”
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shown total disregard for human life by shutting down the city without providing food and medicine to the people.”
“We’re cornered.”
Bullied by ‘Fifty Cent Party’ Network
The experience of Wuhan netizen Jiawei’s family is even more chilling.The netizen whose alias is “Jiawei small dumpling” posted on Jan. 24 that his aunt and sister were suspected to have contracted Wuhan coronavirus.
At first, they had a fever and went to the hospital. Patients were found to have been cross-infected while queuing. “I can’t help it. I was sent home the first night.” The next day my aunt failed to hold on, “My brother-in-law cried and begged the hospital before they accepted her, but it was too late. After two days, she died.”
“The hospital still refuses to accept my sister now. She was also afraid to go to hospital, because there was no quarantine at all.”
Jiawei complained bitterly in the end, “Widely-informed controllable? No human-to-human transmission? ... (The government) kept hiding facts. How many innocent lives have been lost!”
“What can we ordinary people do? There is no place for accountability. If you die, you die. Can the government pay for life?!”
The netizen’s relative, with the alias “sister Shan is mighty” commented under the post that the aunt’s body was still placed on the bed in Hankou Hospital.
The hospital refused to move the body to its morgue, asking the families to disinfect the body and contact a funeral home themselves, so they contacted a funeral home. It wasn’t until 11 a.m. on Jan 24 did the funeral home’s car come, because this funeral home has only one car that is able to disinfect. The car has pulled dead bodies from the whole city, hospital by hospital.
After Jiawei’s family exposed the truth of Wuhan epidemic on social media, they suffered severe bullying and criticism by the Fifty Cent Party (the CCP’s paid Internet commentators).
In the end, a classmate of “Jiawei small dumpling” contacted an Internet celebrity who has a sense of justice.
After providing proof of identity to testify the family’s authenticity, the Internet celebrity appealed for public concern on social media and helped restore Jiawei’s online reputation, at the very least.
