Doctors on ‘Chernobyl-like suicide mission’ to virus epicentre
Relatives have tearfully farewelled medics headed for Wuhan’s coronavirus epicentre on what has been likened to a “Chernobyl-like suicide mission”.
Distraught relatives have farewelled medical volunteers headed for Wuhan’s coronavirus ground zero on what has been likened to a “Chernobyl” like “suicide mission”.
Footage has emerged of relatives tearfully saying goodbye to doctors and nurses on a mission which has been compared with Soviet first responders heading into the Chernobyl nuclear reactor after it exploded.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was the world’s worst nuclear accident.
The volunteers to Wuhan’s frontline to treat coronavirus-infected patients has been described as a “coronavirus suicide mission”.
American politician Solomon Yue issued a sombre tweet in response to one video of families sobbing and hugging as their medically trained relatives board trains or buses.
“Like Chernobyl firefighters, some of those doctors and nurses WON’T come back to their loved ones,” Mr Yue posted on Twitter.
“This is a #coronarvirus suicide mission for many of them. God bless them.”
Thousands of doctors and nurses are saying goodbye to their families as they’re deployed to Wuhan to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
In Xian, in central China, one doctor was filmed by China Central Television having a “last breakfast” with his wife before heading to the frontline in Wuhan.
First Affiliated Hospital of Xian Jiaotong University chief physicist Dr Liu Yu, at the is one of 137 medical staff assigned from Shaanxi province alone to the virus epicentre.
The 44-year-old was filmed with his wife, Zhou Jing, a nurse, preparing to leave for Wuhan, 750km southwest of Xian.
Like Chernobyl firefighters, some of those🇨🇳doctors & nurses WON'T come back to their love ones. This is a #coronarvirus suicide mission for many of them. God bless them. https://t.co/uz1prAbQOv
— Solomon Yue (@SolomonYue) January 27, 2020
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Zhou Jing described how her husband had joined SARS relief work during the 2003 outbreak of that corona-related virus.
Dr Yu had also done relief work after the 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan and the Yushu earthquake in 2010.
“It’s scary when you don’t know much about it,” he said.
“But now we know what kind of virus it is, how it spreads and in which way it spreads, what clinical characteristics it has and how to treat it.
“Now we get the picture. Once we spoke about all these facts, my wife was kind of relieved.”
Zhou Jing said she was “still a little bit in denial and scared, scared overall” about her husband’s journey to ground zero of the coronavirus.
Dr Yu received a video call from his father who said, “we all support you to go to Wuhan to fight this virus”.
“Pay attention to your own safety,” he said.
likely a video from a hospital in #WuhanLockDown
— å·´ä¸¢è‰ Badiucao (@badiucao) January 29, 2020
medics are saying there is no food in hospital now.
we need food， we need food.#WuhanCoronavirus #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/nYukTdqbZT
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The Chernobyl allusion to the coronavirus outbreak has also been used in comparing the Chinese Government’s apparent cover-up with the Soviet regime’s for Chernobyl.
Critics of Chinese President Xi Jinping said his mishandling of the response to the outbreak amounts to an attempt to cover it up.
The Wall Street Journal reported Chinese authorities are trying to “dictate the narrative” of the coronavirus outbreak with state media outlets being told what to publish.
“Social media posts are being deleted, including comments calling out the government for failing to contain the virus or questioning official data related to the disease,” WSJ reported.
Chinese citizens are angry that the Government “underplayed the threat from a disease” that has now infected more than 7700 people and killed at least 170.
The Washington Post reported that President Xi and the Communist Party were struggling as much with the political ramification on their 70-year rule, as with a global public health epidemic and its risk to the domestic economy.
The Post said top party advisers sought to protect Xi, while allowing public criticism of local Wuhan authorities, “who initially covered up and ignored the coronavirus”.
This has caused Wuhan to point the finger right back at Beijing.
As WSJ Journalist Jonathan Cheng tweeted, “the mayor of Wuhan suggested Beijing was partially responsible for the initial lack of transparency about the coronavirus threat”.
He wrote this was “a sign of tensions within the government as it struggles to get a handle on a fast-spreading public-health crisis”.
Mr Yue also retweeted a post tagged #WuhanLockDown which was said to be a video of medical staff inside the Wuhan hospital saying “there is no food in hospital now. We need food, we need food.”
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