I don't have a handy list of what they specialized in, but Dr. Li has been the main face for the breaking news. He seems to have been good at his specialty. After the fact, we find he was right or close enough to right; however, there is a reason that it is rarely mentioned that he was an ophthalmologist. His specialty matters because people listen to experts according to their experience and specialty.
Turn back time in your imagination and imagine the same stories that ran in non-Chinese news rewritten as "ophthalmologist" instead of doctor. As I said, in hindsight it is simple to say things might have been different, but do you think anyone would have taken the story seriously? Seriously enough to change where we are today? No.
Complain about China's numbers and handling all you like, consider though what would have happened without the extensive quarantine and travel restrictions. They bought most of the rest of the world at least a few weeks to get ready, but many countries didn't and that's where we are now. Had things played out differently, had this fizzled out early on, want to make any bets about how many stories would have run about how horribly China treats people?
In practical terms, what have those numbers you want done to limit the spread of COVID-19? Look at South Korea, the cult leader made a public show out of apologizing. I'm not Korean and don't speak Korean, so I have no way to judge how sincere it was, but prostrating himself on the floor is usually a fairly extreme display. Did it change the numbers of infected? Get anyone out of the hospital? Give people time lost in quarantine back? Bring back any dead? That's what apologies and blame are worth at this stage. That's not a defense of anything, it's simply being realistic -- apologies, blame, even 100% transparent reporting world wide -- none of those things will directly get a vaccine out a bit sooner.