I read a story today about the Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who tried to warn people about the early outbreak of the new coronavirus. Chinese officials quickly moved to silence him, warning him that he was rumor-mongering. The officials also warned other medical personal not to release information about the virus. The coronavirus subsequently became an epidemic and even the doctor who tried to warn the public was stricken with it.
I mentioned the story to my wife and remarked that it was a story typical of a dictatorship, trying to shut down the flow of information to the public.
“Yes,” my wife said, “and what’s different here, where the president orders government employees not to talk or release information to Congress?”
