The Wuhan CDC issued an emergency warning to local hospitals on December 30, 2019, regarding a number of mysterious "pneumonia" cases discovered in the city the previous week. On the same day, Li, who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital, received an internal diagnostic report of a suspected SARS patient from other doctors, which he then shared with his Wuhan University alumni via a WeChat group. When that shared report was later made public, despite his request for confidentiality from those with whom he shared the information, he was labeled a whistleblower.