When mentioning the “SARS” of 13 years ago, many people will think of masks, Isatis root, the famous medical expert Zhong Nanshan, and the Xiaotangshan Hospital that was built from scratch in seven days and nights, but few people know that if it weren’t for him—Jiang Yanyong, who used great courage to tear open the concealed truth, if it weren’t for his determination, “for 50 years, after the political movements, I deeply realized that it is easiest to tell lies and empty words, but I must never tell lies.” The epidemic is very likely to evolve into a tragedy covering more people. When “speaking the truth” becomes a dangerous act, where should the conscience of intellectuals go?
Dr. Jiang Yanyong, who first disclosed the “SARS” epidemic in Beijing
On October 7, 2012, Dr. Jiang Yanyong, a retired surgeon from the General Hospital of the PLA, celebrated his 80th birthday. Relatives and friends gathered together to tell memories related to him over the past 80 years. Luo Chenghua is a student of Jiang Yanyong, and he went on stage and said, “He is a hero of the SARS period.”
In recent years, people have rarely seen Jiang Yanyong’s name in mainland publications. And as 2013 approaches, when people re-examine the impact of that spring 10 years ago, his name cannot be ignored.
On April 21, 2003, the cover of Time magazine, the upper right corner is a red cross on Saddam Hussein’s head, which was during the Iraq War. But another thing that the whole world paid attention to that year could be compared to the war. The center of the cover of this issue of Time is a word composed of 4 letters: SARS. The small words below are:
What did Beijing know ?
The text of the cover story is accompanied by a portrait of then-Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang. On April 3, at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council, Zhang Wenkang told the gathered media reporters: “There are only 12 cases of SARS in Beijing, with 3 deaths. China’s SARS has been effectively controlled.” He further stated: “Everyone is welcome to come to China for tourism and business negotiations. I guarantee everyone’s safety. It is safe to wear a mask or not.”
It was Zhang Wenkang’s words that stimulated Jiang Yanyong, who was sitting in front of the TV.
Outrageous numbers
“I think the numbers provided by Zhang Wenkang are too far from the truth.” This was Jiang Yanyong’s reaction at the time. For this reason, he began to learn about the situation of patients admitted to the hospital from relevant doctors.
In early March 2003, a patient from Shanxi was sent to the 301 Hospital where Jiang Yanyong worked by a local doctor. The doctor said in his introduction of the condition that the patient had a fever and cough for four or five days, and they suspected it might be SARS. The doctor in the emergency room replied that this was impossible, and Guangzhou had already controlled SARS. Therefore, this patient was admitted to the Department of Respiratory Medicine.
However, a few days later, the parents who came with the patient developed serious conditions. After being suspected of SARS, this family was transferred to the 302 Hospital. Soon after, the patient’s parents died one after another, and the daughter escaped the disaster and returned to Shanxi after treatment improved. This disease showed strong infectivity. After receiving the patients, the 302 Hospital, although strictly handled according to respiratory infectious diseases, still had more than ten doctors and nurses infected.
In the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery of the 301 Hospital, a patient with gallbladder polyps developed a fever during the preparation for surgery, suspected of SARS, and was transferred to the 309 Hospital, and died a few days later. Two doctors and two nurses in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery were infected.
“The 302 Hospital has received 40 patients, with 2 deaths; the 309 Hospital has received 60 patients, with 7 deaths. On April 4, the president of the 301 Hospital announced at the handover meeting that the 301 Hospital has had 46 confirmed and suspected SARS patients.”
At the end of March, Jiang Yanyong’s classmate from the Peking Union Medical College, Zhu Ke, the director of the Department of Neurology of the 301 Hospital, developed a high fever when he was transferred to the Department of Thoracic Surgery for surgery due to lung cancer, suspected of SARS. Experts from the 302 and 309 hospitals held a consultation, and Jiang Yanyong was also among them, so he learned that the 302 and 309 hospitals already had many SARS patients. “I felt that this infectious disease was unusual and should be taken seriously.”
From the beginning of March, the 301 Hospital had just admitted patients, and the hospital leaders went to the Ministry of Health for a meeting. The spirit of the meeting was conveyed that although Beijing already had SARS, in order to ensure the successful holding of the two sessions, this matter should be strictly kept secret and not allowed to be spread as a discipline. “I soon got this information and felt that it was very wrong to do so. But at that time, I couldn’t see that the disease of SARS was so serious and dangerous, so I didn’t care.”
It was not until Zhang Wenkang said those words that Jiang Yanyong, a surgeon, decided not to remain silent. “I immediately went to the leaders of the Medical Affairs Department and the Outpatient Department and asked them to reflect that Zhang Wenkang’s speech was wrong.”
Sending emails
The day after Zhang Wenkang spoke, on the afternoon of April 4, Jiang Yanyong met Zhang Liping, the former Minister of Health of the General Logistics Department, and another older Minister of Health, Minister Wang, in the hospital yard. “I asked them what they thought of Zhang Wenkang’s speech, and they both thought it was wrong. They said that the General Logistics Department had an internal notice of more than forty cases of SARS. I joked with them, saying, ‘How did you bring out a lying minister?'”
Jiang Yanyong believed that the situation had reached a critical point. Because, in mid-April, a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists would come to Beijing for tourism, and it was very likely that they would be infected with SARS and may spread to the whole country and the world. “That would cause extremely bad consequences for our country and the people of the world. I have a responsibility to tell the world what I know.”
On the evening of April 4, Jiang Yanyong wrote down what he knew, and according to the email address he saw on TV, he sent emails to CCTV-4 and Phoenix Satellite TV:
Yesterday, the Chinese Minister of Health said at a press conference that the Chinese government has been taking the SARS issue very seriously, and the disease has been brought under control. But in the numbers he later provided, Beijing had 12 cases of SARS and 3 deaths. I couldn’t believe it after reading it.
Today I went to the ward, and all the doctors and nurses were very angry after watching yesterday’s news. So I sent this letter to you, hoping that you can also work hard for the life and health of mankind, and participate in this fight against SARS with the righteous voice of journalists.
The last sentence is: “The materials I provide are all true, and I take all responsibility.”
In the following days, Jiang Yanyong did not receive any response. But this information was obtained by other overseas media. On April 8, reporters from The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine found Jiang Yanyong and interviewed him. “Susan Jakes, a reporter from TIME, first wanted to find out if the numbers I provided were true. I told her that the numbers were confirmed by several doctors and were very reliable, and I took full responsibility for this. She suggested that I could remain anonymous. I told her that the credibility of the anonymous news would be much worse, and I should sign my name. She then asked if I had considered the consequences of doing so. I said that everything I said was true, and the Constitution protected me. But I also made the worst preparations.”
The TIME magazine posted the interview content online that night, and then published it in the magazine on April 21. At 8 a.m. on April 9, the three telephones in Jiang Yanyong’s home rang non-stop. Dozens of media outlets such as the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, DPA, Kyodo News, BBC, CNN, VOA, and Lianhe Zaobao called for interviews.
“I was scheduled to give a lecture to the trainees and graduate students in the department at 3 p.m. on April 9, and I had to delay it for nearly an hour before starting. Before the lecture was finished, the hospital found me and wanted to talk to me.”
At 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. that night, the hospital leaders went to Jiang Yanyong’s home twice to talk. “The talks were conducted in a very polite manner. The hospital leaders first affirmed my motivation and starting point for accepting interviews with foreign media, but as a soldier, doing so violated the relevant discipline of the army, and I should not contact foreign media in the future.
I said that I didn’t know there was such a regulation before, and I would talk to the hospital first in the future. At the same time, I said that you must also feel that Zhang Wenkang is wrong after watching his speech. Zhang Liping and Minister Wang, they have retired, and they can tell the truth. Our country has suffered too much in the past because of telling lies, and I hope you can also try to tell the truth in the future.”
Making suggestions
Jiang Yanyong has always cherished the value of telling the truth. He studied at Yenching University, and the Yenching motto “For truth, for freedom, for service” was deeply engraved in his heart. “As a doctor, from learning to see a doctor, to being able to see some complex diseases, to being able to solve some difficult diseases, the education in school books is certainly important, but it mainly depends on gradually accumulating experience from dealing with patients one by one. In other words, the doctor’s progress bit by bit is all given by the patients. Therefore, the skills learned from the patients should be better used to serve the patients.” This is Jiang Yanyong’s understanding of the school motto.
On April 10, 2003, Jiang Yanyong attended the meeting of the board of directors of the Yenching Alumni Association. One of the items discussed at the meeting was whether the return to school event originally scheduled for April 19 would continue. Several doctors on the board first made suggestions.
The first to speak was Academician Hu Yamei. She is the president of the Children’s Hospital and also the leader of the Beijing Leading Group for the Prevention and Control of SARS. She said that two children in the Children’s Hospital had contracted SARS, and their mothers and grandfathers had all been infected with the disease, which showed that the disease was highly contagious. She also provided information that the hospital had received a notice that if there were any more SARS cases, they would be “digested on the spot”.
The second was Professor Wu Weiran. He said that there were two patients in Beijing Hospital, who were not very serious and had basically been controlled.
Jiang Yanyong spoke third. He said that there were many patients in the military hospitals, but as long as the truth was told to everyone and handled correctly, it could be prevented and treated.
The day before the meeting, Jiang Yanyong called Professor Zhu Yuanjue, an expert in the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, to ask for advice on the case of Zhu Ke suspected of SARS. She told him that Peking Union Medical College Hospital had also received a notice to “digest on the spot” the SARS patients. The reason was that the two infectious disease hospitals in Beijing (Ditan Hospital and You’an Hospital had 200 beds) were already full.
As early as the afternoon of April 11, several of Jiang Yanyong’s classmates gathered at his home. One of them received a phone call. That friend was attending a meeting of the military, and the meeting decided to temporarily convert the Third Hospital of the Armed Police in Xiaotun, Beijing, into a hospital for the treatment of SARS. Because WHO had decided to return to Beijing immediately and focus on investigating the military hospitals.
“After the arrival of WHO, the 302 Hospital transferred most of the patients it had received to the Third Hospital of the Armed Police. Only a few mild and suspected cases were left in the first and second wards of the first ward of the 302 Hospital (specializing in the treatment of respiratory infectious patients). Some patients with more serious conditions were temporarily placed in the third ward of the second ward (specializing in the treatment of digestive infectious diseases). At the same time, the 309 Hospital transferred most of the 60 patients it had received to a temporary hotel on the street that had been converted to receive patients. The inspection of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital by WHO was a temporary notice, and their president put most of the patients into several ambulances, equipped with medical staff, and drove to the street. The president of Peking Union Medical College Hospital also had to put other patients into ambulances and equipped them with medical staff to go to the street because he received a notice and could only report one confirmed case and one suspected case.” This is the information Jiang Yanyong obtained.
On April 11, Jiang Yanyong found the hospital leaders and told them about the situation he knew, and put forward three suggestions:
1. In view of the fact that the local and military infectious disease hospitals in Beijing have been full, and the above has proposed that each hospital should “digest on the spot”, which is completely against the treatment principles of infectious diseases. Therefore, I suggest that some hospitals be reorganized in Beijing as soon as possible so that they can receive SARS patients.
2. It is recommended that Zhang Wenkang resign to take responsibility, which is conducive to the new State Council leaders to deal with the epidemic in a timely and correct manner.
3. It is recommended that the Ministry of Health send someone to verify the numbers of SARS cases with me. If the numbers I provided are wrong, I will ask CCTV to let me make a statement, explaining that I was wrong, and I am willing to accept any punishment. If the numbers released by the Ministry of Health are untrue, then please the Ministry of Health correct the errors and announce the real numbers.
On February 21, 2013, patients with sequelae of SARS (from left): Li Shuyuan (49 years old), Li Zhaodong (60 years old), Zhang Jinping (55 years old), Wu Ruxin (56 years old), Bao Baoqin (58 years old), Wang Baozhen (77 years old), Zhang Jian (53 years old), Wang Ligang (36 years old) and Wang Jian (54 years old) took a group photo in Beixinqiao Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing. Most of them were infected with SARS when they went to see a doctor or accompanied patients in a nearby hospital.
In a letter to Deputy Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei, Jiang Yanyong expressed the same suggestions. “At the end of the letter, I wrote my address and contact phone number, hoping that they would give me a reply after receiving the letter. I submitted this letter to the hospital and sent it to the Ministry of Health of the Central Committee as soon as possible through the General Logistics Department. After that, I urged every day, and the hospital told me that the letter was soon sent to the Ministry of Health through the hospital and the General Logistics Department. But I have never received a reply from the Ministry of Health.”
Rejecting lies
WHO experts came to China again and, with the consent of the Ministry of Health, entered the military hospitals for investigation.
On April 15, a reporter called Jiang Yanyong: “The numbers of the SARS epidemic investigated by WHO in the military are basically the same as the numbers you provided.” A friend in Hong Kong called Jiang Yanyong and said that they saw the WHO press conference in Hong Kong, “They conducted an investigation in the military hospitals and had an agreement with the military not to disclose the specific numbers, but the numbers they obtained were similar to those I provided. There are nearly two hundred confirmed SARS patients and more than three hundred suspected cases in Beijing. Beijing has decided to immediately transform and build 18 hospitals (districts) that can handle SARS.”
On April 17, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting, and Hu Jintao emphasized at the meeting that no one should conceal or falsely report the epidemic.
On April 20, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference, and Gao Qiang, the new Executive Vice Minister of Health, confirmed that there were 339 confirmed SARS cases and 402 suspected cases in Beijing. On the same day, Xinhua News Agency released a message: The CPC Central Committee “removed Zhang Wenkang from the post of Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Health; removed Meng Xue’nong from the posts of Deputy Secretary, Standing Committee Member, and Member of the Beijing Municipal Committee.”
From April 23, there was a press conference in Beijing every Wednesday. At the meeting, reporters often asked where Jiang Yanyong had gone. “In order to solve this question, the external department of China News Service was approved by the hospital to interview my home on May 14, and the main idea was to explain that Jiang Yanyong’s life is now as usual. The next day, Xinhua News Agency also interviewed me from the external department.”
During the interview, Jiang Yanyong repeatedly expressed the value of telling the truth. “As a doctor, protecting the health and life of patients is the first priority, and all behaviors that endanger patients should be opposed. For doctors, seeking truth from facts is the most basic requirement, so we must insist on telling the truth. For 50 years, after the political movements, I deeply realized that it is easiest to tell lies and empty words, but I must never tell lies.”
In August 2004, Jiang Yanyong was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in the Philippines. The award is known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. The reason for his award will be remembered:
“He bravely exposed the truth of the SARS epidemic, thereby saving countless lives.”
Source: Southern People Weekly
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