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In the early days of 2020, as science searched for answers to a mysterious viral outbreak In the center ChinaA prominent Chinese virologist has stepped forward to share critical data with the world.
Zhang Yongzhen’s release of the genome of the virus that causes Covid-19 was a crucial step in the race to combat the pandemic, helping researchers around the world identify the pathogen and create vaccines to combat it.
He was praised for his integrity by the scientific community, but in the years since, people who know Zhang say he has faced a series of unprecedented obstacles in his career in China — with yet another hurdle placed in front of his research over the past week. .
On Sunday and Monday, Zhang, 59, slept overnight in protest outside his laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center after administrators abruptly closed the facility for renovations, according to reports posted on his Weibo social media page.
A post on his page on Wednesday said a “tentative agreement” had been reached for Zhang’s team to resume their scientific work at the lab, some of which related to tracing the origins of Covid-19.
The ordeal is just the latest obstacle 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 published online also laid out a series of challenges faced by the scientist since formally transferring 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 that the Shanghai center, affiliated with the city’s Fudan University, did not 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 humanity, has fallen to this point – it is truly sad and frightening,” the post read.
In a statement released on Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said it had closed some laboratories for renovation due to safety concerns and said it had provided additional offices 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 in the doorway of the laboratory building as security guards hovered over him.
Reached briefly by phone on Monday, Zhang told CNN that the center’s explanation that the lab needed renovation and that there was widespread notice of the change was “absurd.”
More than a dozen student research projects were affected by the lab closure, he said, adding that it was “inconvenient” to say more at this time.
In his post on Wednesday, Zhang said his team would “discuss with the (center) the future laboratory relocation plan, ensuring normal life and scientific research work for students during the transition period” and work to resolve issues related to your work. own agreements with the center. CNN was unable to independently confirm its post.
Zhang’s students’ previous post said that the two days originally allocated by the center for them to carry out their scientific work were insufficient. Its laboratory was recently renovated in 2020 and a second laboratory had not been in use since the pandemic, they added.
Neither Zhang nor the online publication detailing the circumstances that led to his protest linked the lab’s closure to his sharing of the 2020 coronavirus genome sequence.
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 to share The genomic sequence of Covid-19 on January 11, 2020, while the World Health Organization expected China provide the data following the announcement nearly two weeks earlier of a viral outbreak in the central city of Wuhan.
He has been internationally acclaimed for his work and named by Nature as one of 10 people who helped shape science in 2020.
In an interview with the magazine that year, Zhang reflected in its global recognition.
“They say, ‘January 11th was a turning point in 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 arose from that moment on, according to his longtime collaborator Edward Holmes, a professor at the University of Sydney who published the genome with Zhang’s permission on an international data-sharing website. .
After the data was released, Zhang’s lab ran into limitations, which prevented him from isolating the Covid virus, Holmes said.
It is unclear whether this measure was separate from a Chinese government “rectification” order received by Zhang’s team that reports at the time said resulted in the temporary closure of the laboratory the day after the sequel’s release. Zhang told Nature in 2020 that the order only required his lab to update its biosafety protocols after moving equipment during construction work.
Zhang, a scientist at China’s CDC since 2001, was also forced to leave 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.
These changes for Zhang came at a time when China – already known for its top-down control over the academic sector – strengthened oversight of scientific information related to the virus. This included imposing restrictions until April 2020 on publishing academic research about the origins of the new coronavirus.
Beijing has repeatedly defended its scientific transparency and sharing of data related to the outbreak.
“The idea that (Zhang) would do anything anti-China is ridiculous, given his (national) pride. But it’s clear that the government wanted a certain message to be conveyed, a certain narrative about the outbreak in Wuhan… by releasing the sequence of the virus, it broke that instruction — and it all follows from that,” Holmes told CNN on Monday. .
“In the past, pre-Covid… he was like a machine and now the machine is broken. He was slowly crushed by it.”
‘No regrets’
In the months following the Covid-19 outbreak, Zhang’s job was transferred to the Shanghai Public Health Center, where he had a five-year cooperation agreement and had been a part-time professor since 2018. It is unclear whether this change was already in effect. works before 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 has received at least two international awards.
The most recent of his international publications, from March, looked at coronavirus variants in Shanghai in the early 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 lab, the post said.
In a Weibo post on Jan. 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 heat and cold of human emotions and the harshness of the world, we have no regrets.”
But the last few years have taken a big toll on Zhang, according to Holmes.
“He’s not the same in terms of productivity, he’s completely different – not the same person at all. It was extraordinary to watch and extraordinary that it got to this point,” he said.
Holmes, who limited email contact with Zhang during his protest this week, said the Chinese virologist told him he recently failed in his legal action against the Shanghai center over the way he managed his contract.
“(All of this) has been going on for a long time… but I didn’t realize how bad it was,” Holmes said.
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