Telling the truth is not always good for your health.

And so it proved to be the case for Doctor Li Wenliang, the ophthalmologist who noticed the appearance of a new SARS like virus a few weeks ago in Wuhan Central Hospital, China.

After warning his university colleagues of the danger, he was censured by police for spreading rumours.

He subsequently contracted coronavirus himself.

His pregnant wife is now a widow.

In many ways it is easy to look at the secretive and controlling Chinese authorities and think this kind of thing would not happen in Western Europe.

This would be a very naive and short sighted approach.

We don’t have to dig too deep to find Irish health scandals where ‘cover ups’ were attempted.

Financial considerations usually show their ugly head at these times with health authorities and medical companies living in fear of lawsuits.

We all make mistakes. Once we learn from these errors, then we grow.

For the most part, mistakes are good.

They provide opportunities for development.

So will China learn anything from their handling of the case of Doctor Li?