The death of a front-line physician in main China is provoking a backlash versus the authorities’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Hu Weifeng died on 2 June, after a four-month battle with Covid-19
He made headlines in March, when his skin turned black “due to liver dysfunction” during his treatment.
The specific cause of his death has not been made public however the news has actually triggered an outpouring of anger on Chinese social media websites.
Who was Hu Weifeng?
Dr Hu Weifeng was an urologist, who was treating patients at the Wuhan Central Medical Facility – where Covid-19 was initially identified.
He evaluated favorable for the infection in January, throughout the early stages of the Chinese break out, and was transferred to different medical facilities for treatment the following two months.
His condition at first improved in mid-March; nevertheless, he then suffered cerebral haemorrhages in late April and May.
Dr Hu Weifeng, and a coworker, cardiologist Yi Fan, went viral in April after official media publicised their “difficult fight versus the virus”.
Users of the popular Sina Weibo microblog were stunned at the time to see that the coloring had changed in their faces, which media said “could be due to irregular liver functions”.
The two became called “the two black-faced Wuhan physicians”, and they won across the country appreciation for fighting back versus the infection, as both had been seriously ill.
The Communist Youth League called them “angels who had actually fought with death”, and Weibo users sympathised with simply how much they had to endure on the front-line.