The doctor, Jiang Yanyong, 72, told TIME today he wrote the statement because he feels that "a failure to disclose accurate
statistics about the illness will only lead to more deaths." Jiang says medical staff in Beijing's military hospitals were briefed
about the dangers of SARS at the beginning of the National People's Congress in early March, but told not to publicize what they'd
learned lest it interfere with the annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp legislative body. This has been confirmed by another
physician at a Beijing-area hospital.

After watching Zhang Wenkang's televised press statement last week, Jiang says he spoke to doctors and nurses at three Beijing military hospitals who expressed surprise and anger at the Minister's statement. As of today, Jiang says doctors at Beijing's No. 309 PLA Hospital told him they are treating 60 SARS patients and that seven patients have died of SARS. A duty officer at the No. 309 hospital reached for comment tonight said he "wasn't clear about this matter" and refused to provide information about SARS patients at the hospital.
The following are translated excerpts of Jiang's statement:

"On April 3rd, China's Minister of Health announced to the press that the Chinese government was already diligently dealing with the
problem of SARS, and that the spread of the disease was already under control. He said that Beijing had 12 SARS cases and that three had died of the disease. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The next day when I went to the hospital all the doctors and nurses who had seen Zhang's statement were furious. As a doctor who cares about people's lives and health, I have a responsibility to aid international and local efforts to prevent the spread of SARS.

This is what I learned from my colleagues:

Around the time of the convening of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference,
Beijing's No. 301 Hospital admitted an old man. At the time he was very ill and thought to be possibly suffering from SARS. He was
therefore sent to Beijing's No. 302 Hospital (an infectious diseases hospital) for treatment. At that time the doctors at No. 302
Hospital didn't have experience with the disease. In the process of treating him 10 doctors and nurses were infected with SARS. The old man was very sick and died two days after entering the hospital. His wife was admitted soon afterward and also died. Only at this time did officials from the Ministry of Health call a meeting of hospital leaders to inform them that Beijing now had cases of this disease, but that in order to ensure stability as the nation's two annual legislative assemblies got underway, hospital officials were
forbidden to publicize what they'd learned about SARS.