New Delhi: Chinese virologist Zhang Yongzhen’s tussle with Chinese authorities over the alleged closure of his laboratory in Shanghai has sparked a debate about transparency in global health.
The incident this week had only added to growing criticism against China’s actions against its own leading doctors, scientists and lawyers since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this week, 59-year-old Zhang, who defied China’s gag order in January 2020 by being the first to disclose the genome of SARS-CoV-2 to a global database, slept overnight at the entrance of his laboratory.
He claimed authorities had forcibly shut down his place of work.
The dispute between Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Dr. Zhang Yongzhen's team continues. Dr. Zhang allegedly shared photos of himself sleeping on the floor at the entrance of the laboratory. https://t.co/K5ztBAv6yE pic.twitter.com/6wBkkLLQnB
— Yanzhong Huang (@YanzhongHuang) April 29, 2024
This, despite him appearing in Nature’s 10 among those who helped shape science in 2020, and two years later, receiving the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award, with a $1 million scholarship, that was given by the UAE. Zhang has been hailed as a “hero” since his disclosure about the genome helped in the design of vaccines and diagnostic tools for COVID-19.
According to his posts on Chinese social media platform Weibo (now deleted), Zhang and his team had been served an eviction notice from their lab, and guards barred him from entering it over the weekend.
Later, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (SPHCC) said the building that housed Zhang’s lab was undergoing renovation work.
“For the team of researchers Zhang Yongzhen who carry out scientific research activities in the region, the hospital has provided additional office and experimental places in the scientific research building,” the SPHCC said in a statement quoted by Chinese media.
Adding, “Our institute always respects scientific researchers and supports scientific researchers and students to carry out normal research work.”
On Wednesday, Zhang said in an online post that he and his team were allowed to return to the lab and continue their research for the “time being”.
“The Chinese government should promote him as role model instead of making his life hard,” Austrian virologist Florian Krammer said in a post on X Thursday.
Zhang Yongzhen is one of the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic. He deserves recognition. The Chinese government should promote him as role model instead of making his life hard. https://t.co/9oI43BrYKk
— Florian Krammer (@florian_krammer) May 1, 2024
Meanwhile, Chase Nelson, a scientist with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) University of South Carolina-Columbia, criticised the Chinese government’s “obfuscation, and persecution” of its own scientists.
“[This has] destroyed credibility and fuelled endless conspiracy worldwide because everyone sees people in China cannot speak freely,” Nelson wrote in a post on X, also Thursday.
Important to name the problem: China’s Communist Party has given Zhang Yongzhen hell since he bravely & selflessly shared the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence with Eddie Holmes & the world on Jan 11, 2020. (Views my own) 1/ https://t.co/gMffWinMsP
— Chase W. Nelson｜倪誠志 (@chasewnelson) May 2, 2024
In December 2020, Zhang Zhan, a former Chinese lawyer who reported on the early stage of the COVID-19, was sentenced to four years in prison for allegedly spreading false information.
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‘Eager to force Zhang out’
Experts and scientists across the world have voiced support for Zhang in light of the recent incident.
Edward Holmes, the Australian virologist at the University of Sydney who along with Zhang was among the first scientists to share the genome of SARS-CoV-2 with the world, spoke out as well. “It is unfathomable to me to have a scientist of that caliber sleeping outside his lab,” Holmes told Nature on 1 May.
Meanwhile, Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations, raised questions as to why Chinese officials were “eager to force Zhang out”.
In a recent piece for Think Global Health titled ‘A Virus Hunter’s Struggle for Respect in Post-COVID China’, Yanzhong explains that while Chinese authorities took “credit” for Zhang’s decision to share his findings of the COVID-19 genome with the world in 2020, some health officials were reportedly “displeased” with Zhang’s decision as they felt it had “disrupted their plans”.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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