On December 30, 2019, Xie Linka, an attending physician at Wuhan Union Hospital’s Cancer Center, posted a warning in her workplace WeChat group. Citing information from a hospital colleague and an alumni group, she said several patients linked to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market had developed pneumonia of unknown origin resembling SARS. She urged colleagues to avoid the market, wear masks, and ventilate their rooms—weeks before COVID-19 was publicly recognized as a global health emergency.
The source states that around January 3, 2020, Wuhan Police telephoned Xie and instructed her not to spread “false information.” Xie later characterized the warning as part of a doctor’s duty, while noting that the officers were polite. Her account forms part of the broader record of early warnings being constrained or challenged by Chinese authorities, alongside the better-known case of Dr. Li Wenliang, who later died after contracting COVID-19. The supplied page does not document a formal charge against Xie, identify the officers, or establish an independent investigation into the call, so the specific police intervention remains attributed to her account.
