Jiang Yanyong entered the Department of Pre-Medicine at Yenching University in 1949. In 1952, he entered Peking Union Medical College to study and joined the Communist Party of China. In 1954, he joined the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and later worked at the General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army.
Jiang Yanyong received widespread media attention for being the first to disclose the SARS epidemic in Beijing.
Jiang Yanyong, a retired surgeon from the 301 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army, had cured too many patients in his life and received countless thank-you letters. However, since April 2003, the thank-you letters Jiang Yanyong received were very different. Many letters were anonymous, many came from abroad, and the vast majority of the writers were strangers to him. The content of the letters was only one thing: to thank this honest doctor for speaking the truth about the SARS epidemic in Beijing.
On April 11, 2003, the first letter expressing condolences was a fax from overseas, which was the original text of the report on Jiang Yanyong published by foreign media. The sender of the fax was physicist and Nobel laureate Yang Zhenning.
In early May, Jiang Yanyong received a letter from Spain, which contained only two large Chinese characters written with a brush on rice paper: “Benevolence.”
On May 23, 2003, Jiang Yanyong was included in the “Anti-SARS Heroes List” by the “Economic Women” weekly of the China Women’s News. The first on the list was Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert from Guangdong, Jiang Yanyong was second, and Vice Premier Wu Yi was third.
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The medical community is no stranger to the name Jiang Yanyong. This graduate of Peking Union Medical College in the 1950s became a surgeon at the 301 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army very early on, and his medical skills were quite exquisite. After the 1980s, Jiang Yanyong served as the director of the general surgery department of the 301 Hospital, and also served as the deputy head of the tumor professional group of the entire army and a member of the Beijing branch of the Chinese Medical Association of Surgery. Jiang Yanyong has a rich academic record, having published more than 40 papers, including “Surgical Treatment of Primary Retroperitoneal Tumors,” and monographs such as “Gastroenterology Surgery.”
Since the 1980s, the surgery department of the 301 Hospital has been renowned at home and abroad for its high-level retroperitoneal giant tumor surgery, and Jiang Yanyong was the academic leader of this surgery. He once used his own hands to relieve the pain of many patients with giant abdominal tumors who were in a dilemma of wanting to live but not being able to, and wanting to die but not being able to. Until now, Jiang Yanyong, who is advanced in age and has left the position of department director, is still employed as a member of the expert group of the 301 Hospital and appears in the operating room from time to time.
At the end of March 2003, for a somewhat accidental reason, Jiang Yanyong, as a surgeon, learned that the SARS epidemic in Beijing was already quite serious.
It was March 30, a Sunday. Jiang Yanyong heard that an old classmate, Dr. Zhu Ke, was suspected of having SARS. Zhu Ke was the director of the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the 301 Hospital, and also a close friend of Jiang Yanyong. Not long ago, Zhu was diagnosed with lung cancer and was hospitalized in this hospital waiting for surgery, and suddenly developed SARS symptoms: high fever, difficulty breathing, and shadows in both lungs.
Jiang Yanyong immediately started to work for his friend. In addition to learning about the situation from some doctors in this hospital who had been in contact with SARS, he also specifically called the 302 Hospital and 309 Hospital of the military system for advice. Later, his friend’s SARS suspicion was ruled out, but from some familiar specialist doctors, Jiang Yanyong was surprised to learn that there were already quite a few SARS patients in Beijing, with nearly 60 cases in the 309 Hospital alone, and the number of deaths reached five or six!
Before this, the 301 Hospital where Jiang Yanyong worked had also received the first SARS patient in Beijing. The patient’s parents later died in the 302 Hospital. In addition, a patient in the hepatobiliary surgery department of the 301 Hospital who was preparing to undergo gallbladder polyp surgery was later found to have SARS, infecting two doctors and three nurses. Similar situations also occurred in other wards of the 301 Hospital. At that time, Jiang Yanyong had realized that this infectious disease was quite rampant.
At this moment, on the evening of April 2, Jiang Yanyong saw former Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang on the CCTV Focus Interview program. Jiang Yanyong was not surprised that Zhang Wenkang rarely appeared on television to state the SARS epidemic in China, but he did not expect that Zhang Wenkang said that there were only 12 SARS patients in Beijing, and 3 deaths!
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Jiang Yanyong, who has always been straightforward and advocated telling the truth, felt angry.
“I couldn’t believe it after I saw it. Zhang Wenkang used to be a doctor at the Second Military Medical University, but he didn’t even want the most basic standards of being a doctor.” He directly accused Zhang of “lying” on the issue of the epidemic.
On April 4, after further investigation and confirmation, Jiang Yanyong wrote to Phoenix Satellite Television and CCTV Channel 4, providing the facts he knew. He also said, “Today I went to the ward, and all the doctors were very angry after watching the relevant news. So I sent this letter to you, hoping that you can also work hard to be responsible for the lives and health of mankind, and participate in this fight against SARS with the righteous voice of journalists.”
On April 8, Jiang Yanyong accepted an interview with the American magazine Time, confirming the letter he wrote. He said that the reason he stood up and spoke was because if he didn’t tell the truth, more people would die.
After Time magazine, some other major overseas newspapers reported Jiang Yanyong’s signed letters.
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Disclosing the truth about the epidemic may bring some invisible pressure to Jiang Yanyong, but it did bring him the support and praise of his colleagues and friends. Although Caijing magazine was not allowed to contact and interview Jiang Yanyong through the news and propaganda department of the political department of the 301 Hospital in early April, it could also be felt that the hospital respected this senior old party member and old expert.
For a considerable period of time after April, the SARS epidemic in Beijing was still shrouded in clouds and mist, and the truth was unclear. On the 6th, after the death of Aro, an official of the International Labor Organization of Finland, due to SARS, the Chinese government officially disclosed that there were 19 SARS patients in Beijing, all of whom were still “imported cases.” On the 10th, Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei said at a press conference that there were 22 patients in Beijing, of whom 4 had died, and said that these figures included all confirmed cases in local hospitals and military hospitals.
Jiang Yanyong had extensive contacts in the Beijing medical community. When he met with friends, he learned more information about the epidemic in local hospitals, and he felt that the situation was becoming more and more serious. On the afternoon of the 11th, Jiang Yanyong formally went to the leaders of the political department of the 301 Hospital to further put forward his views and suggestions.
This time, he formally proposed that the Minister of Health should resign to take responsibility.
Jiang Yanyong also directly stated that the Ministry of Health’s proposal to “digest” SARS patients in comprehensive hospitals did not conform to the principle of dealing with infectious diseases, and that some small hospitals should be converted into infectious disease hospitals as soon as possible, equipped with necessary equipment, and staffed with experienced doctors and nurses to treat SARS patients.
More opinions focused on the epidemic figures. Jiang Yanyong said that he hoped that the leaders of the Ministry of Health would come to verify the figures with him. If the figures he reflected were wrong, he could issue a statement to the world, admit his mistakes, and be willing to be punished. If the figures of the Ministry of Health were wrong, he would ask the Ministry of Health to correct them.
On the 12th, Jiang Yanyong wrote a letter to Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei, again expressing his thoughts. In the letter, he frankly stated that he had accepted an interview with the American magazine Time, and also said: “As a doctor, I should tell the people what I know, so that the relevant people can know. Because this disease is preventable, as long as the disease is treated correctly, the spread of the disease can be well controlled. But if the propaganda is not correct, it will be difficult to control. If we speak like Minister Zhang, everyone will take it lightly, then it may cause a great disaster. It is very harmful to our people and the people of the world, and to our country.”
At the end of the letter, Jiang Yanyong said: “Please the Ministry of Health to announce the correct figures. If it is wrong, we must be brave enough to admit our mistakes, and it will be fine to correct them. There must be no falsehood or mistakes in matters of people’s health and safety.”
Jiang Yanyong entrusted the 301 Hospital to forward this letter to Ma Xiaowei himself through the organization system.
Reliable news shows that during the investigation of the Beijing epidemic by the World Health Organization, relevant officials had contacted Jiang Yanyong himself. Although they did not meet, at a press conference on April 16, relevant officials of the organization said that the epidemic mentioned by Jiang Yanyong was indeed a fact.
On April 17, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Hu Jintao stated at a meeting of the Political Bureau that no one should conceal the epidemic.
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The crucial turning point began on April 20. On this day, Xinhua News Agency announced that Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang and Mayor of Beijing Meng Xuenong were removed from their party positions. At the same time, Gao Qiang, the executive vice minister of health, announced the epidemic in Beijing. The new figures were nearly 10 times the official figures five days ago, reaching 339 cases, and there were also 402 suspected patients.
At the beginning of the transparency of the epidemic, people witnessed the rapid increase in the number of SARS patients, and some people were also quite panicked. But a more conscious and orderly large-scale prevention and control action began, and it showed results in a short period of time. Twenty days later, the number of cases in Beijing, where the epidemic was most serious, began to decline significantly.
The improvement in China’s epidemic report was not only the result of Jiang Yanyong’s efforts. However, his actions, especially the initial signed letters, were indeed crucial. People remember the merits of this doctor and praise his courage and integrity. And Jiang Yanyong said: “I only thought of two points, one is that human life is the most important, and the other is to tell the truth. It is enough to admit these two points.” His state of mind is as usual.
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