Coronavirus Wuhan Transcript

Transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AI3R41dGnU
original, untranslated video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXozpbomAns

Hi everyone, I am Chen Qiushi

It's now Jan 30th, 11AM something

The video today might be a bit long. I'll be more talkative

Sorry about that

My videos before were usually vertical and below 5 mins

Because my main audience is mainland Chinese

I am not too focused on how audience abroad will view the video

vertical video is more the Mainland Chinese way of viewing videos

5 mins is the longest Wechat can load

So I had wished people would download them and spread them on Wechat

When I was talking about rule of law, equality, checks and balances...

This time in Wuhan

I've seen a lot. It's my 6th day in Wuhan.

My name has been flagged in China

If the content contains "Chenqiushi" or "CQS"

or my face

It will not be sent on Wechat

Many people told me

Anybody who spread my video, will have their account deleted

Because there have been a lot of rumors on Wechat

You can watch this video

I don't recommend forwarding it on Wechat

Because if you do, your wechat account will be deleted, like mine

I have lost contact with many people

Today it's the 30th. Let me talk about my experience in the pat couple of days

My first two days in Wuhan, I went to

Wuhan Central Hospital (on New Year's Eve)

I went to No.11 hospital twice

I went to supermarkets in Wuhan

I went with volunteers to donate supplies, to Xiehe Hospital

I went to the construction site of Huoshenshan Hospital

This is a while back

Yesterday

Jan 29th

I went to Wuhan's No.5 People's Hospital

The place where many doctors are rumored to have been infected

but

I can't...it's impossible to ask the doctors

"Did your colleagues get infected?"

Doctors are busy. And it's impossible for me to interview leaders of the hospital

None of them will take interviews

Becuase...I heard..that all medical workers received orders not to take interviews

In some hospitals, they confiscate doctors' phones

keeping them from spreading news

Now we already know, the 8 "rumormongers" arrested at the beginning.

Seems like they are all doctors

They talked about the virus in their wechat groups

I made a video a few days back, saying

civilian groups in Wuhan are disorganized

Soon I was proven wrong, some volunteer groups reached out

Some drove medical workers to work

Some are in charge of transporting and unloading goods

Because there are supplies coming in from Wuhan

They are in charge of unloading them and sending them to the hospitals

That's what the volunteers are doing

I added them on Wechat, I will participate in their activity

But I could see...they are under tremendous workload

The volunteers have a lot to complain, they don't have it easy

The Chinese public don't trust the Red Cross

So they sent small packages to the hospitals

We saw, in the hospitals' receiving room

There were many small packages. But in fact they are very inefficient

Think about it, hospitals have to get workers to open them one by one

Masks, hazmat suits, of different models, different types

Different qualities...they have it all

They had to categorize them, inspect them, figure out how to use them

The best way is of course from org to org

A truckload directly to the hospital. This is the best scenario

Volunteers had to help with these things. Small packages from all over the nation

It's already a lot to do

I saw a volunteer's wechat moment

saying that the police is asking them for supplies

He was saying "where are all the donations received by the government?"

Why is the government asking us civilian groups for supplies?

The situation is still...a mess

Like I said, I visited people on the Huoshenshan Hospital construction site

Workers on the site are working so hard

Workers are on 2 or 3 shifts, working 24 hours

Mid- to low-level managers, unlike workers,

They have no time to rest

When they saw us, their eyes were red, their voice shot

Saying "I've no time to take care of you. Leave the masks and look around as you wish"

"I've not gone home in 3 days. I sleep 2 or 3 hours a day

The guy who brought me there works in construction. He knows people in the field

The head worker on the site said

"We are all from Wuhan. If we die of overwork here. I guess we are martyrs"

"If we can do something for Wuhan, then good"

Chinese people are really...

I hate the saying "Do the labor, don't complain"

Why the fuck should they do the labor and not complain?

Then

I'm going to answer a stupid question

"Why couldn't we convert hotels into hospitals?"

Because, hospitals for infectious diseases

Need to be sectioned into "Red zone", "yellow zone" and "green zone"

Places that hold infected patients, cannot let any air out

So ordinary hotels cannot hold people who are infected

They can be used to quarantine suspected cases, sure

The 200 something Japanese people who returned to Japan are now quarantined at a hotel

But the hospitals being built now are under "negative pressure"

Air pressure inside is lower than air pressure outside

Air only goes in, not out

They have to have special drainage systems, ensuring

all contaminated air, water, etc, won't leak outside

This is what they are building

In just several days

They are racing with time

Now I don't know if there will be accidents on the construction site

Because all of these companies are working together to build it

The requirements are so strict

The speed is so high, it's hard not to

have hiccups

Now let's talk about

Yesterday

Yesterday, on the 29th

I went to Wuhan's NO.5 People's Hospital

In No.5 Hospital, there were not many people

But I talked to some patients, this time more in depth

Before this, I went to

Wuhan Central Hospital, there were fewer people due to New Year's Eve

Then I went to other hospitals, fewer people as well

This is due to a few reasons

First

most people were "sealed away"at home

Some people were not allowed to leave their apartment

So

how can you go to the hospital if you don't have transportation?

This is the first reason

The second reason, if you are in the hospital, you know even if you get there

You can't get a bed or a diagnostic test, why go at all?

I made a video before, complaining that

In local chat groups, stupid people were

saying whatever they want

Then my friend says "Qiushi, you joined a group full of crazies"

So he added me to a chat group made of local taxi driver

Taxi drivers have the most up-to-date news in the city. Right? Though sometimes they spread rumors

These drivers told me

Many of them, as early as mid-December, heard from friends and family about the virus

Because their friends and families were locals, they knew about the infectious disease

They suspected it was SARS

Why couldn't we call it SARS?

It is SIMILAR to SARS, alright?

Why should an ordinary citizen distinguish between SARS and the coronavirus?

Now, the Wuhan police

doesn't even apologize one bit

They only said "your rumormongering is not a serious offense"

"Because you mistook the virus for SARS"

For example,

somebody says "there's a Northeastern Tiger in the mountain, don't go there!"

Then

A gov official says "there's no tiger!" And then the tiger kills a bunch of people

After the gov wakes up to it, they say:

"It's not Northeastern Tiger, it's a Huanan Tiger"

"You made a mistake. So your rumormongering is only a light offense"

You mistook the type of the tiger

Let's go back

Some taxi drivers knew about it in mid- to late- December

Among the taxi drivers, they start to

telling each other not to go to Huanan Market

Some who used to shop there no longer went there

I don't know if Hunan Market is the real source of the virus

But it is really a source of the outbreak

Understood? I don't know where the virus comes from

But Huanan Market is where many people got sick

This is why when I went there, the locals were terrified

Tha taxi drivers

There are about 20,000 taxis in the city.

Tens of thousands of Ubers (Didis and the like)

The latter were private vehicles

Taxis were a public service, belonging to Taxi companies

They requisitioned 6000 taxis to "ensure supply"

"Ensure transportation needs"

But how they went about doing it?

Every neighborhood has 4 taxis

One neighborhood jurisdiction has at least several apartment complexes

For example, Tiantongyuan of Beijing

With it's zone 1, zone 2....in total it has 600,000 to 1 million people

Wuhan has 11-14 million people

Let's say 5 million have left the city, 9 million remain

A neighborhood has a population in the 10,000s or 100,000s

ONLY 4 TAXIS?

They say the taxis were for "emergency goods transportation"

Or "critically ill patients".

The taxis are mostly "for goods", not "for people"

JUST 4 TAXIS. If you need it, you have to call the neighborhood office

The neighborhood volunteer has to help you arrange it

Basically, you won't get to use it!

So yesterday, a local lent me a scooter

When I rode it and went to the street, many people were riding scooters or shared bikes to go to the hospital

Wuhan is huge! I feel like its area is bigger than Beijing!

It's separated by the river, into

Hankou, Wuchang... several boroughs, it's huge

That's why people are not at the hospital

Why hospitals were not crowded.

Many people have no way of going there

It's like 'Brother Mask' said

Patients rely on 120 emergency ambulance for transport

Are there enough ambulences or taxis? No

Taxi drivers also complained that they were asked to "ensure supply"

They have to buy their own masks and hazmat suits

Let's continue

There's not enough logistical power

A huge amount of people are "locked down"

Some people even suspected

If I didn't see it for myself...

heard with my own ears...

I will say "some people suspect"

I can't be like people on the internet

I have my own face at stake

I will only tell you what I saw and heard in real life

I won't just spread a screenshot or a video from the internet

Some people suspect the hospitals drove the patients away

Because Premier Li Keqiang was visiting

That's why you see a dwindling number of patients in the hospital

Yesterday, I went to No.5 Hospital

It was fairly orderly

Many people are here for the test kits

So that they can be sure whether they are confirmed

I blended in with the crowd, stood in line

I pretended to be a patient and stood in line with others

I asked "how many days have you been coughing or having a fever?"

"Are you here for a diagnosis or checkup?"

"You are holding a CT scan, why are you here?"

"Is it just you who got infected, or is your family infected too?"

Some patients had coughed for days

and had a fever for days

the meds are not driving away the fever

They are "suspected"

But being a "suspected" case is psychological torture!

I coughed for 6 days. How are my symptoms not serious?

Don't you try and tell me that again!

Don't you try and tell me again!

Then, in hospital reception

Sorry, my thoughts are disorganized

The nurse at the reception

was registering patients and handing out numbers

like "you are no. 126, there are test kits today."

"Go stand in line on the 2nd floor, Department of Testing"

"Those of you who can confirm their infections, they can stop worrying whether they got it."

Some local friends hooked me up with an "suspected" patient

And I followed him to see the process of seeking medical treatment

I saw a patient

Yesterday afternoon, I went to Hospital No.5

Then I followed the patient to Tongji Hospital

I talked to him, and other patients at Tongji Hospital

Many people have gone to 3 to 5 hospitals

and were deemed "suspected infections"

He said originally, he had a shadow on his left lung

glass-like shadow

Then he got it in both of his lungs

Along with other symptoms

He had trouble breathing, he felt sick

but

When he arrived at Tongji

With his scan

It's the first time I ever felt frightened

It's...

More than a dozen oxygen tanks at the entrance

With "full of oxygen, be careful" on them

Inside...

People are lying on benches

There are added beds in the hallway

There are added beds near the bathroom!

60-70% of the patients are inhaling oxygen

Some people are inhaling pressurized oxygen with a mask

If it's not pneumonia, why the need for pressurized oxygen?

When I went with a local patient to seek medical treatment

His brother went with him

He said "if it weren't for my brother, I wouldn't dare come here. Why are you here?"

We have to disinfect ourselves thoroughly going in and out.

When we saw doctors...and medical workers

The patient I went with was not well-organized

He forgot his newest scan for the doctor

The doctor said: "where's your scan? not the one from 5 days ago. the new one"

He said "I only have a picture of it in my phone"

The doctor said "I need the scan. This is too small"

The patient said "Can I get diagnsoed first?"

The doc said "it's not your call. We have to evaluate you first"

After that, we have to prioritize critically ill patients. Because we don't have enough test kits

NOT ENOUGH TEST KITS!

I saw online that Tianjin gave Wuhan 10,000 test kits

But just Wuhan alone has 10 million people!

Distributed to all the hospitals

Only a few hundred test kits per hospital

There's not enough!

Some locals said the hospitals will keep some test kits for the doctors

I think that's fine. Who will save you if the doctors get sick?

China has a saying: "let's not worry about how to share the pie. Let's make the pie big first!"

But now the pie isn't big enough!

If you are a doctor, and tens of thousands of patients ask you for test kits

And you only have a few hundreds

How do you distribute them?

That's why some patients, after going to 5 or 6 hospitals, gave up

Because they have to stand in line for a long time to get diagnosed. Only when they are diagnosed

can they be allowed inside the hospital

All of the hospitals I went to told me there weren't enough beds. No beds

That's why they are building the hospital!

Yesterday, that patient

didn't end up getting tested

Docs, nurses, their attitudes were great. In their suits, sweating like that

They were so tired, but they were still working and guiding you

Doctors were seeing patients, and guards were maintaining order

It was already better managed than before, but

patients in the hospital yards, they were still helpless

Some were receiving IV on the bench

Those more well-off had their IV in their car

They hang the IV bottle on a tree

Those without cars just did so outside, in the cold

They sat on the stoops, hanging their bottle on a stick

I'm only telling you what I saw and heard personally from the patients

Rumours online

There are so many of them

If you want rumours, go online. I only say what I saw

This is the case with this patient, in his 40s, a guy

He was steps away from crying in front of me

"I had coughed and had a fever for a week"

"Now my brother has a fever"

"My mother-in-law has a fever"

"A day before the lockdown"

"I had supper with my relatives."

"I went to my mother-in-law's and had dinner with them."

"I played Mahjong with my old classmates"

"I was in contact with a dozen people!"

"If I'm confirmed, what's going to happen to them?"

"It is over for my whole family"

This is what he told me in person

then

Other news, for example

I've been in contact with Japan's Foreign Ministry

In the past, I'd gone to Japan through them. I had a relationship with officials there

Now, they don't really respond to my Wechat anymore

I asked to shoot their repatriation procedure

I want to interact with the embassy, I want to know how serious this outbreak is

Because your repatriation might cause panic among Chinese people. This is important

But he said...we can't arrange that for you

Now, they say about 200 Japanese people are repatriated

How many were confirmed?

You should pay attention to this:

How many were confirmed cases among the 200 Japanese citizens?

This ratio is important! It is important! Do you understand?

Let' continue

Sorry, my thoughts are disorganized. Because I've started to be frightened

I am frightened

Because Wuhan locals won't go to the hospital unless they are truly worried about themselves

There is no one on the street. The locals are really terrified

I'm jealous of those CCTV guys!

They could go inside Jinyintan Hospital's infected zone

But they are safer than me

They are fully protected, with hazmat suits, the whole thing

Jinyintan Hospital has red zone, yellow zone, and green zone

Red is infected zone, yellow is danger zone, green is safety zone

CCTV people were in the green zone, interviewing the patients with videochat

That's safe! I was in the clinic!

I couldn't go to the in-patient area. It was not allowed.

No way I am allowed to interview local experts or officials

But who knows how many people were infected with the virus?

All doctors there were in full hazmat suits

I only have goggles and two masks

I had a coat, which I disinfect everyday. I hang it outside, for fear of infections

I reek of disinfectant!

Nobody dares to go to the hospital

Before I came, I wanted to contact Caixin

Because before the lockdown, Caixin was the only outlet that was in Wuhan

no other outlets!

Interviewing for news is a professional skill

Not just waving a phone to take videos, that's not news

I try hard not to tell you rumors I heard. I am only telling you what I experienced.

I tried contacting Caixin through friends, I couldn't.

I found someone who worked there. He didn't want to talk to me. Nobody dared talk to me

Even less likely that CCTV will talk to me

Yesterday, I met an anchor from a TV station in Guangdong. That was nice.

I wanted to learn about how to do a professional interview

I shouted out to Wang Zhian on twitter

He is an investigative reporter, who reported on Zhou Libo, or whoever it is, about the boxing school

I had Laoliang's Wechat

While Liang was still in China, I asked him if I could join Wang Zhi'an's team

Wang is one of the few investigative reporters left

Now, according to stats, there are less than 200 investigative reporters in China

This time, there is no reporter around

I tried reaching out to him on twitter, I hope he teaches me how to

interview effectively, how to cut to the chase

I reached him eventualy. He taught be a little.

Then, finally, I heard there was one reporter from a Hongkong TV station

she hasn't returned home

I finally got her on Wechat, and she speaks Chinese

I thought I met a comrade. I said "Can we exchange information? Can we interview together?"

She said: "Lawyer Chen, I haven't left for 6, 7 days. I have been in the hotel."

The TV station ordered us not to leave. We had to protect the safety of our staff

"So Lawyer Chen, you have done more than all of us"

"If you have news, please share with us."

Now I know what it feels to be alone!

I contacted the reporter from New York Times, in Wuhan

I contacted him on Twitter, I don't know where he is yet

His name is Bai-something. I read through his tweets

I don't know if he's Chinese. But he can write Chinese.

I saw his twitter. I also don't see any pictures from the clinic, the infected zone

Nobody is on location!

That's why I'm starting to get scared.

Especially...I heard news from a Japanese outlet

A driver who received tour groups from Wuhan

who only helped guests handle luggage, he is infected!

I have been on the frontline for 3 or 4 days, in the clinic

Psychological stress

can really break you down

For example, many patients seeking help

Some told me "it might just be a cold, but I have to be sure"

"If you don't diagnose me, how would I know?"

That's why he's here. But there are only hundreds of test kits.

Why would they use it on you, somebody who's only coughing?

But these patients are really unhappy, saying...

"You only serve the critically ill. My symptoms are light now, but you have to wait until they become critical-level?"

"When I become gravely ill, can you still save my life?"

But we only have a few hundred test kits!

Yesterday, I...

I saw another dead body in Tongji Hospital

His face was not covered. This time he was sitting.

Is he okay?

He passed away

He died?

Yes. [Unclear]

"Have they not found a vehicle to transport him?"

They are going to put him in the morgue

He was so gravely ill. But the car arrived too late.

"He's passed..." [Unclear]

I don't know by "car", if she meant the ambulance

but think

You hear ambulances, intended for critically ill patients, all the time on the street

Especially at night, there was nothing but ambulance. Do you know how scary it is?

The old man...after a while, we left and came back

We saw them wrap him up in a yellow body bag and send him away

This is what I saw yesterday in Tongji Hospital

I'm under a lot of stress. These days, my breathing has been labored

My chest hurts a bit

I don't know. I hope it's just stress.

I have diarrhea, because I've always had that problem

I have a weak digestive system, and I've drunk a lot of milk

One of the symptoms is diarrhea

And lung problems

Maybe it's because 5 or 6 hours of wearing masks, not enough air....that I have chest pain

I sent my location to a few friends in Wuhan yesterday

Because, only Brother Mask knew where I lived

I don't even know Brother Mask's name. I'm not good with names or faces

Okay, this is Jan 29th.

What I saw

Again, I'm only telling you what I saw

What patients' family told me in person

Lack of masks, lack of hazmat suits and protections

Lack of supplies in general

Most importantly, lack of test kits

No test kits, no diagnoses

You can only quarantine yourself at home

If there are test kits

you still need a bed

If you have bed, you still need a doctor

You can't just have a line of patients lying there without a doctor

we need doctors

The outbreak is still serious. Many problems are not solved.

today

that's about it

I should go out for interviews today

I talked to the NYT reporter

I asked him if I could interview him. He said he could not be photographed

He wanted to interview me instead

That's it. Today I am talkative. I talked for more than 20 minutes

That's it.

I will do my best to perk up.

I will.

The department of justice called me again.

Qingdao Police Station called me as well

They asked me where I was. They asked me to cooperate with their investigation.

I said "I was in Wuhan". They asked "why?"

I said "if you don't know I'm in Wuhan, why are you looking for me?"

to cooperate with what?

They asked "where do you live in Wuhan?"

I said "at a friend's"

They are talking to my parents

yesterday, or the day before

My mom said "don't I worry about him more than you?"

"Don't I wish him to return more than you?"

I am scared.

I have the virus in front of me.

Behind me is China's law enforcement

But I will perk up

If I am still alive in this city

I will continue my report

I will only tell you what I saw, what I heard

I love to say emotional things

I'm saying this harsh thing right here

Fuck you, I'm not even scared of death

You think I'm scared of you Chinese Communist Party?