REAL MEN WANT TO DO BEIJING:

Surgeon claims cover-up over Sars in China (Mure Dickie in Beijing and Joe Leahy in Hong Kong, April 9, 2003, Financial Times)

World Health Organisation officials have appealed to China for greater clarity on an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome after a senior Chinese military surgeon said the government had understated the spread of the disease in Beijing.

Chinese officials have said fewer than 20 people have been infected with Sars in the Chinese capital but Jiang Yanyong, a doctor at Beijing's No. 301 army hospital, said one affiliated institution alone had dealt with 60 cases.

And while the government has reported only four Sars fatalities in Beijing, Dr Jiang said he knew of seven patients at one hospital who had died of the disease.

"If [WHO experts] doubt what I have said, they should go to the hospital themselves to check. I will take full responsibility if there is any mistake," he said on Wednesday.

The rare public contradiction of the government's line could harm Beijing, which has been kept off a WHO list of Sars affected areas because of official claims that cases in the capital have been few and all "imported" from elsewhere.

His allegations will also fuel the kind of concerns that on Wednesday prompted Malaysia to stop issuing visas for most travellers from China and the Philippines to discourage the importation of Chinese meat.

We salute the bravery of this doctor, who is presumably now being paraded through the streets in a dunce cap, though he may not be merelyt brave but foolish. The wife heard a story about him in which, when asked if he was afraid of government retaliation, he responded that would not be a problem because he's protected by the Chinese constitution. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2003 3:23 PM