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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
This Chinese virologist shared crucial Covid-19 data. Then his research | |
hit hurdles | |
By Simone McCarthy and Yong Xiong, CNN | |
Updated: | |
10:34 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
In the early days of 2020, as science looked for answers to a in | |
central , a prominent Chinese virologist stepped forward to share | |
critical data with the world. | |
Zhang Yongzhen’s disclosure of the genome of the virus that causes | |
Covid-19 was a crucial step in the race to combat the pandemic, | |
helping researchers globally to identify the pathogen and create | |
vaccines to counter it. | |
He was lauded for his integrity by the scientific community, but in the | |
years since, people who know Zhang say he has faced a series of | |
unprecedented roadblocks in his career in China – with yet another | |
barrier placed in front of his research over the past week. | |
On Sunday and Monday, Zhang, 59, slept overnight in protest outside his | |
lab at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center after administrators | |
closed the facility abruptly for renovations, according to accounts | |
posted on his Weibo social media page. | |
A post on his page early Wednesday said a “tentative agreement” had | |
been reached for Zhang’s team to resume their scientific work at the | |
lab, some of which is related to tracing the origins of Covid-19. | |
The ordeal is just the latest hindrance to Zhang’s research since | |
2020, according to a colleague who has been in contact with the Chinese | |
scientist in recent years. | |
An account by Zhang’s research students posted online also laid out | |
a litany of challenges faced by the scientist since the formal transfer | |
of his official employment to the Shanghai center in 2020, when his | |
19-year tenure at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention | |
also ended. | |
Their account, reposted on Zhang’s Weibo page and seen by CNN, has | |
since been deleted. It alleges the Shanghai center, which is affiliated | |
with the city’s Fudan University, failed to formally recognize | |
Zhang’s employment, leaving him without social security and medical | |
benefits, and that it prematurely terminated a five-year cooperation | |
agreement with the scientist. | |
“That a top scientist in his field, a person who has made | |
contributions to the country and mankind should have fallen to this | |
point – is really sad and chilling,” the post read. | |
In a statement Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said | |
it had closed some labs for renovation due to safety concerns and | |
claimed it had provided additional office and experimental spaces for | |
Zhang and his team. | |
The “institute always respects … and supports scientific | |
researchers and students in carrying out normal research work,” the | |
statement said. | |
Images posted on social media this week appeared to show Zhang wrapped | |
in blankets and sleeping on the doorstep of the lab building as | |
security guards hovered over him. | |
Reached briefly by phone on Monday, Zhang told CNN the center’s | |
explanation that the lab needed renovation and there was ample | |
notification of the move was “nonsense.” | |
More than a dozen students’ research had been impacted by the lab | |
closure, he said, adding it was “inconvenient” to say more at that | |
time. | |
In his post Wednesday, Zhang said his team would “discuss with the | |
(center) the future relocation plan of the laboratory, the guarantee of | |
normal life and scientific research work for students during the | |
transition period,” and work to resolve issues related to his own | |
agreements with the center. CNN was unable to independently confirm his | |
post. | |
The earlier post by Zhang’s students said the two days originally | |
allocated by the center for them to move their scientific work was | |
insufficient. Their lab had been renovated as recently as 2020 and a | |
second lab hadn’t been in use since the pandemic, they added. | |
Neither Zhang nor the online post detailing the circumstances leading | |
to his protest connected the lab closure to his sharing of the | |
coronavirus genome sequence in 2020. | |
Multiple calls from CNN to the public relations department of the | |
Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center went unanswered on Tuesday. | |
‘Broken machine’ | |
Zhang became the first scientist to Covid-19’s genomic sequence on | |
January 11, 2020 as the World Health Organization waited for China to | |
following its announcement nearly two weeks earlier of a viral | |
outbreak in the central city of Wuhan. | |
He was hailed internationally for his work and named by Nature as one | |
of 10 people who helped shape science in 2020. | |
In an interview with the journal that year, Zhang on his global | |
recognition. | |
“They say, ‘January 11 was a turning point for understanding that | |
this is serious. It was a turning point for China. It was a turning | |
point for the world,’” he said. | |
But in China, Zhang faced challenges to his work that stemmed from that | |
moment, according to his long-time collaborator Edward Holmes, a | |
University of Sydney professor who published the genome with Zhang’s | |
permission on an international data sharing website. | |
Following the release of the data, Zhang’s lab had limitations placed | |
on it, which barred it from isolating the Covid virus, Holmes said. | |
It’s unclear if this move was separate from a Chinese government | |
“rectification” order received by Zhang’s team that at the time | |
said resulted in the temporary closure of the lab a day after the | |
sequence release. Zhang told Nature in 2020 that the order merely | |
required his lab to update its biosafety protocols after moving | |
equipment during construction work. | |
Zhang, a scientist with China’s CDC since 2001, was also forced out | |
of the agency in September 2020, according to a person familiar with | |
the situation. | |
CNN approached China’s National Health Commission, which oversees the | |
CDC, for comment. | |
These changes for Zhang came as China – already known for top-down | |
control on the academic sector – tightened oversight of scientific | |
information related to the virus. That included imposing restrictions | |
by April 2020 on the on the origins of the novel coronavirus. | |
Beijing has repeatedly defended its scientific transparency and data | |
sharing related to the outbreak. | |
“The idea that (Zhang) would do anything anti-China is ridiculous | |
given his (national) pride. But clearly the government wanted a certain | |
message to be conveyed, a certain narrative to be put out on the | |
outbreak in Wuhan … by releasing the sequence of the virus he broke | |
that instruction – and it all stems from that,” Holmes told CNN on | |
Monday. | |
“In the old days, pre-Covid … he was like a machine and now the | |
machine is broken. He’s just been slowly crushed by this.” | |
‘No regrets’ | |
In the months after he shared the Covid-19 sequence, Zhang’s | |
employment was transferred to the Shanghai Public Health Center, where | |
he had held a five-year cooperation agreement and part-time | |
professorship since 2018. It’s unclear if this move was already in | |
the works prior to January 2020. | |
Since then, he has continued to publish in journals such as Cell and | |
Nature Microbiology on the presence of viruses in animals and nature in | |
China and received at least two international awards. | |
The most recent of his international publications in March looked at | |
coronavirus variants in Shanghai in the initial months of the Covid-19 | |
outbreak, and Zhang’s team continues to work on research related to | |
the virus and its emergence. | |
Ongoing research includes a National Natural Science Foundation of | |
China project at the laboratory, the post said. | |
In a Weibo post on January 11 marking the fourth anniversary of his | |
Covid disclosure, Zhang appeared to allude to the challenges he has | |
faced in the years since. | |
“Four years ago this morning, on behalf of the research team, we | |
insisted on putting life first and made the right choice,” Zhang | |
wrote. | |
“Despite going through continuous ups and downs, experiencing the | |
warmth and cold of human emotion, and the harshness of the world, we | |
have no regrets.” | |
But recent years have taken a steep toll on Zhang, according to Holmes. | |
“He’s not the same in terms of his productivity, he’s completely | |
different – not the same person at all. It’s just been | |
extraordinary to watch and extraordinary that it’s come to this,” | |
he said. | |
Holmes, who had limited email contact with Zhang during his protest | |
this week, said the Chinese virologist had told him he recently failed | |
in his pursuit of a legal case against the Shanghai center for its | |
handling of his contract. | |
“(All this has) gone on for a long time … but I hadn’t realized | |
how bad it had got,” Holmes said. | |
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