According to the magazine, Ai said she was told by superiors the day she sounded the alarm that Wuhan's health commission had issued a directive that medical workers were not to disclose anything about the virus, or the disease it caused, to avoid sparking a panic. Soon after, the hospital reminded all staff that public disclosure related to the illness was forbidden.
Two days later, an official in charge of the hospital's supervision department gave Ai a dressing down for "spreading rumours" – a reference to the photograph she had posted online.
The official told Ai to notify all staff in her department not to disclose anything about the disease – and to say nothing about it to anyone, not even to her husband, according to the magazine.
"My mind just went blank," Ai said. "He wasn't criticising me for not working hard … he made me feel that I alone had ruined the future of Wuhan. I was in despair."