‘China’s Dr Fauci’: How Zhang Wenhong became the face of Beijing’s Covid battle

Expert's clever analogies and frank messages to public have won him respect - and millions of followers

Early last year, as Covid-19 began to disrupt livelihoods in Shanghai, local media struggled to persuade the public to stay at home. Then they turned to an infectious diseases expert, Dr Zhang Wenhong, who also heads up Shanghai's expert panel on Covid-19.

You're bored to death at home, so the virus will be bored to death, too," Zhang said in rapid-fire mandarin mixed with a distinctive Shanghainese accent. Stay at home for two weeks ... then we'll be an inch closer to success."