‘I died too’: a year after the COVID-19 outbreak, Wuhan relatives struggle to move on

WUHAN: Liu Pei’en, a native of Wuhan, closed his investment business and converted to Buddhism to try to make sense of his father’s death last January on suspicion of COVID-19.

Zhong Hanneng still has difficulty sleeping or eating after his son died from the disease nearly 10 months ago, and he says that his friends and relatives are rejecting his family due to persistent fears of infection.

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A year after the coronavirus began to spread from the city, they and other Wuhan relatives are no closer to closure, as the Chinese government’s refusal to take responsibility for early failures in the outbreak complicates the task of accepting. his lost. .

Liu’s 78-year-old father, Liu Ouqing, a career civil servant and former Communist Party secretary of the Wuhan grain office, developed symptoms of COVID-19 after checking into a hospital for a routine health examination, unaware of the rapidly spreading danger.

His diagnosis was never confirmed as test kits were in short supply at the time. He died on January 29.

“You could say that I also died on January 29,” Liu, 44, said in an interview on his father’s birthday at the family’s apartment in an upscale Wuhan neighborhood.

Liu spent much of 2020 in “something of a madness,” using social media to channel her anger at the government’s handling of the outbreak.

“He was extremely angry. He wanted revenge,” Liu said.

The families accuse the city government of initially concealing the appearance of the outbreak in December 2019, pressuring doctors to keep quiet and denying person-to-person transmission.

The danger was hidden from citizens for weeks, allowing the virus to erupt into a global pandemic.

Nearly 4,000 people died in Wuhan, according to official figures, the vast majority of deaths in China.

SECRET, DENIAL

Exhausted and frustrated, Liu then focused his energy on Buddhist philosophy. Now avoid meat, alcohol and social gatherings.

He put aside his successful investment business, saying that money “no longer makes sense.”

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Liu is now on a spiritual quest for the “objective truth of the universe,” marking his father’s birthday in a majestic temple, where he lit candles and prayed before a ten-foot-tall golden Buddha.

China’s government is notoriously allergic to criticism, and its first missteps in Wuhan are among the country’s most politically sensitive issues.

Several close relatives turned down AFP’s requests for interviews or abruptly canceled.

The government continues to shirk responsibility, instead promoting unproven theories that the pathogen originated elsewhere, while proclaiming its subsequent success in eliminating it.

But Zhong, a 67-year-old retiree, blames city authorities for the death of her son Peng Yi, a 39-year-old primary school teacher.

He died in mid-February after a frustrating two-week search to be admitted to crowded hospitals, leaving behind a wife and young daughter.

Zhong is among a handful of Wuhan residents who have tried to sue the city. The courts have refused to accept the claims.

His family talks to a framed portrait of Peng daily, updates him on family matters, and prepares chopsticks and a plate of food for him each night at dinner. Pain at the table is often excruciating, he says.

She remains haunted by the image of her son dying alone in an intensive care room.

“I worry about having depression. I feel very irritable and uncomfortable every day,” she said, as a chilling rain soaked the gray and gloomy city.

‘SO LONELY’

Wuhan is returning to normal, but fear of the virus persists, especially with the onset of another winter.

Zhong believes that she and her husband also had the virus, but they recovered and expresses suspicions, widespread in Wuhan, that the number of cases and deaths is actually much higher, as many were not diagnosed.

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Zhong’s family’s fear of contracting the virus has caused a rift with other friends and relatives.

“Nobody wants to associate with us. We are very alone. Very lonely,” Zhong said.

Dozens of family members have joined social media groups to support each other and discuss legal options.

But the groups have been infiltrated by police, who harass and threaten participants, members say.

And there are infighting, with members of more contentious groups accusing others of cowardice for failing to sue, Liu said.

“There is a Chinese saying, ‘make your own people sad and the enemy glad,'” Liu said.

“The police are very happy to see this abuse between family members.”

The Wuhan government did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

A 36-year-old Wuhan woman who lost her father to suspected COVID-19 said she wants the world to know about the city’s fateful initial “cover-up”.

“We didn’t know it was that serious,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Like Zhong, she complains that her friends and family resist contact and feels depressed about her loss and the government’s “cover-up”.

“Life will go on, but there is no way to erase this shadow.”

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