The scientist who in 2020 published the first sequence of the virus that causes Covid-19 has been let back into his Shanghai lab after spending days locked outside, where he sat in protest.
That publication, by Zhang Yongzhen, PhD, helped lead to the development of tests and vaccines for the virus.
His sit-in protest since the weekend came after he and his team were suddenly notified they were being evicted from their lab, the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions, and ousters since the virologist published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval.
When Zhang tried to go into the lab over the weekend, guards barred him from entering.
He sat outside on flattened cardboard in the rain while members of his team unfurled a banner that read “Resume normal scientific research work”, according to pictures posted online.
“I won’t leave, I won’t quit, I am pursuing science and the truth,” he wrote in a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo that was later deleted.
News of the protest spread widely on Chinese social media, putting pressure on local authorities, and in an online statement on Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, which hosts his lab, said the venue was being renovated and had been closed for “safety reasons”, adding that it had provided alternative lab space.
However, the scientist said the alternative offered did not meet safety standards for conducting his team’s research, reports Euronews.
On Weibo, he said he was negotiating a plan to relocate the lab that would not disrupt their work.
The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre subsequently “tentatively agreed” to let him and his team continue their research.
Back at work
Zhang’s dispute follows a string of incidents since his unapproved leaking of the sequence nearly four years ago, and an indication of how the country has sought to control information related to the virus.
An Associated Press investigation found that the government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace it from the first weeks of the outbreak.
That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out, and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country, reports Medpage Today.
When reached by phone on Tuesday, Zhang said it was “inconvenient” for him to speak, saying there were other people listening in.
In an email on Monday to collaborator Edward Holmes, PhD, Zhang confirmed he was sleeping outside his lab after guards had barred him from entering.
An AP reporter was blocked by a guard at an entrance to the compound housing Zhang's lab. A staff member at the National Health Commission, China’s top health authority, said by phone that it was not the main department in charge and referred questions to the Shanghai government.
The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zhang’s ordeal started when he and his team decoded the virus on 5 January 2020, and wrote an internal notice warning Chinese authorities of its potential to spread, but did not make the sequence public.
The next day, his lab was ordered temporarily shut by China’s top health official, and the scientist came under pressure from authorities.
Around that time, China had reported several dozen people were being treated for a respiratory illness in the central city of Wuhan.
Possible cases of the same illness had been reported in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, involving recent travellers to the city.
Foreign scientists soon learned that Zhang and other Chinese scientists had deciphered the virus, and called for him to publish.
Zhang published his sequence of the coronavirus on 11 January 2020, despite a lack of government permission.
Sequencing a virus is key to the development of test kits, disease control measures, and vaccines. The virus eventually spread to every corner of the world, triggering the pandemic that disrupted lives and commerce, prompted widespread lockdowns, and killed millions of people.
Zhang was later awarded prizes in recognition for his work.
But his publication of the sequence also prompted additional scrutiny of his lab, according to Holmes, Zhang's collaborator and a virologist at the University of Sydney.
Zhang was removed from a post at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and barred from collaborating with some of his former partners, crippling his research.
“Ever since he defied the authorities by releasing the genome sequence of the virus that causes Covid-19 there has been a campaign against him,” Holmes said. “He’s been broken by this process, and I’m amazed he has been able to work at all.”
Euronews article – Chinese scientist allowed back in his lab after sit-in protest (Open access)
AP article – China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins (Open access)
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