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Hong Kong
CNN
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In early 2020, as science searched for answers to a mysterious viral outbreak in central China, a prominent Chinese virologist stepped forward to share vital data with the world.
Zhang Yongzhen’s disclosure of the genome of the virus that causes Covid-19 is an important step in the fight against the pandemic, allowing researchers around the world to identify the pathogen and develop a vaccine to combat it. helped develop.
Although his integrity was praised by the scientific community, Mr. Zhang has since faced an unprecedented series of obstacles in his career in China, according to people who know him, and in the past week he has faced an unprecedented series of obstacles ahead of his research. Another wall stood in their way. .
Zhang, 59, protested outside a laboratory at the Shanghai Municipal Public Health Clinical Center on Sunday and Monday after management abruptly closed the facility for renovations, according to an account posted on the social media Weibo page. I slept all night because of it.
A post on his page early Wednesday morning said Zhang’s team had reached a “tentative agreement” to resume scientific research at the institute, some of which will explore the origins of the coronavirus disease. related to tracking.
The ordeal is just the latest hurdle in Zhang’s research since 2020, according to colleagues who have been in touch with him in recent years.
Accounts posted online by Zhang’s research students say the scientists faced the most severe challenges since Zhang’s formal transfer to the Shanghai center in 2020, ending his 19-year tenure at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A number of issues have also been identified. Ended.
Their accounts were reposted on Zhang’s Weibo page and verified by CNN, but have since been deleted. The Shanghai Center, which is affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai, did not formally recognize Zhang’s employment, deprived him of social security and medical benefits, and prematurely terminated a five-year cooperation agreement with the scientist. claims.
“It is truly sad and horrifying that a top-notch scientist in his field, a man who has contributed so much to his country and humanity, has fallen so low,” the post said.
The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center claimed in a statement on Monday that it had closed some laboratories for renovation due to safety concerns and provided additional office and laboratory space for Zhang and his team.
“The Institute will always respect… and assist scientific researchers and students in carrying out their normal research activities,” the statement said.
Images posted on social media this week showed Zhang sleeping in the entranceway of the research building wrapped in a blanket, with a security guard over him.
Reached briefly by phone on Monday, Zhang told CNN the center’s explanation was that the institute needed renovations and that the move was “nonsense” even though there had been sufficient notice.
He said the research of more than a dozen students was affected by the lab closure, adding that it was “inconvenient” to say more at the time.
Zhang said in a post on Wednesday that his team “discussed with the (center) about the laboratory’s future relocation plans, guaranteeing students’ normal life and scientific research activities during the transition period” and issues related to his research. He said he would work to resolve the issue. Unique contract with the center. CNN could not independently verify his posts.
Previous posts by Zhang’s students said the two days initially allocated by the center to advance scientific research were insufficient. Their lab was renovated in 2020, and the second lab had been unused since the pandemic, they added.
Neither Zhang nor the online post detailing the circumstances that led to his protest link the lab’s closure to the sharing of the 2020 coronavirus genome sequence.
Multiple calls from CNN to the public relations department of the Shanghai Municipal Public Health Clinical Center went unanswered on Tuesday.
Zhang became the first scientist to share the coronavirus genome sequence on January 11, 2020, while the World Health Organization awaited China’s announcement. provide data This follows the announcement of an outbreak of the virus in central Wuhan nearly two weeks ago.
His work has received international acclaim, with Nature magazine naming him one of the 10 people who helped shape science in 2020.
In an interview with the Journal that year, Zhang reflected on his global reputation.
“They say, ‘January 11th was a turning point in understanding that this was serious.’ It was a turning point for China. It was a turning point for the world,” he said.
But Zhang’s long-time collaborator Edward Holmes, a professor at the University of Sydney, who published the genome on an international data-sharing website with Zhang’s permission, said that in China, Zhang’s own research stemmed from that moment. He said he was faced with challenges.
Holmes said that after the data was released, Zhang’s lab had restrictions placed on the data, making it impossible to isolate the new coronavirus.
It is unclear whether this action is in addition to the Chinese government’s “rectification” order that Zhang’s team received, and media reports at the time said the lab was temporarily shut down the day after the sequence was released. Zhang told Nature in 2020 that the order simply required labs to update their biosafety protocols after moving equipment during construction work.
Zhang, a scientist at the China CDC since 2001, was also expelled from the agency in September 2020, according to a person familiar with the situation.
CNN has reached out to China’s National Health Commission, which oversees the CDC, for comment.
Zhang’s changes come as China, already known for its top-down control over academia, is increasing its oversight of scientific information related to the virus. This included imposing restrictions on the publication of academic research into the origins of the coronavirus by April 2020.
The Chinese government has repeatedly advocated scientific transparency and data sharing regarding the outbreak.
“The idea that[Mr.It’sclearhewantedtogetthestoryoutthere…Byreleasingthesequenceofthevirushebrokethatdirective-andeverythingstemsfromthere”HolmestoldCNNonMonday…
“A long time ago, before coronavirus…he was like a machine, and now that machine is broken. He was slowly being beaten down by this.”
Several months after revealing the route of the coronavirus infection, Zhang’s employment was transferred to the Shanghai Municipal Health Center, where he had a five-year cooperation agreement and adjunct professorship starting in 2018. It is unclear whether this move was already planned. Works before January 2020.
Since then, he has continued to publish in magazines such as Cell. Nature Microbiology on the presence of viruses in animals and nature in China and won at least two international awards.
The latest international publication, published in March, looked at the coronavirus variant that emerged in Shanghai during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak, and Zhang’s team continues to monitor the virus and its emergence. We are working on related research.
Ongoing research also includes a National Natural Science Foundation of China project at the institute, the post said.
In a Jan. 11 Weibo post commemorating the fourth anniversary of the coronavirus disclosure, Zhang appeared to allude to the challenges he has faced in the years since.
“Four years ago this morning, on behalf of our research team, we made the right choice by insisting that lives come first,” Zhang wrote.
“Even though we have experienced ups and downs, the warmth and coldness of humanity, and the harshness of the world, we have no regrets.”
However, Holmes said recent years have taken a toll on Zhang.
“He’s not the same in terms of productivity, he’s completely different. He’s not the same person at all. It’s abnormal to watch and it’s abnormal that it came to this,” he said.
Holmes had limited email contact with Zhang during this week’s protests, but the Chinese virologist recently unsuccessfully pursued a lawsuit against the Shanghai center over its handling of the contract. He said he was told it was over.
“(This whole thing) had been going on for a long time…but I didn’t realize how bad it was getting,” Holmes said.
