"Now it is sure that the virus can be spread through casual contact," Zhong Nanshan publicly expressed his opinion in  News 1+1, a live telecast program of CCTV news channel in China, during its evening broadcast on January 20, 2020.

While telling the public "Do not go to Wuhan if you don't have to", a 84-year-old expert rushed to the front line of the epidemic by high-speed train on his own. As every household was celebrating the Spring Festival, he was working in Wuhan, the site of the outbreak of COVID-19. He chose to brave the coronavirus risk and was hailed as a "hero in harm's way”. It was also this man who, 17 years ago when SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), another coronavirus epidemic was rampant in China, came to the stage and said, "Send the most critically ill patients to me". At that time, he was 67 years old. Since then, people have remembered this honest old man. He is the hero of our story today—Zhong Nanshan.

Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province, is the most populous metropolis  in central China and the most important commercial and industrial center on the  Yangtze  River. This city had never thought she would become the epicenter of a severe epidemic. At the very beginning of the outbreak, local people might have heard that hospitals  were overwhelmed with patients suffering from fevers and coughs. It was three days before Chinese New Year's Eve, when people all over the country were busy doing New Year's  shopping to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the  new.  What people didn't know was that a plague was about to rage across their city.  Zhong Nanshan's words served as a wake-up call. From that moment on, Wuhan, other cities in Hubei province and the whole country began a tough and formidable fight with COVID-19.

Fig 1: “Stay strong, Wuhan!”Wuhan lights up

Fig 2:  Yangtze  River Bridge  in Wuhan  Fig 3: Wuhan lockdown

Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the CAE (the Chinese Academy of Engineering), is an eminent respiratory specialist and a leading figure in China's fight against SARS. He once worked in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College as the director of Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases and has been there for nearly 40 years. Established in 1979, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases is one of China's top respiratory clinics. Now it is the support unit of the state key laboratory of respiratory diseases and Guangdong provincial key laboratory of respiratory diseases, as well as the national key discipline and the national clinical pharmacology base.

Fig 4: Academician Zhong Nanshan