Chinese SARS whistleblower Jiang Yanyong dies at 91

BEIJING (AP) — Reports say Jiang Yanyong, a Chinese military doctor who revealed the full extent of the 2003 SARS outbreak and was later placed under house arrest for his political outspokenness, has died. Long-time acquaintance Hu Jia and a Hong Kong newspaper say Jiang was 91 when he died of pneumonia Saturday in Beijing. Jiang had been chief surgeon at the People’s Liberation Army’s main 301 hospital in Beijing. The ruling Communist Party was vastly underreporting the extent of the outbreak of the highly contagious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. In 2003, Jiang wrote an 800-word letter to Chinese and Hong Kong media stating there were many more cases than were being reported, which was eventually reported by Western media.