At the end of April 2024, images appeared on social media showing Chinese virologist Zhang Yongzhen sleeping outside his lab in protest. Source
On January 5, 2020, Chinese virologist Zhang Yongzhen saved countless lives. Only days before, the first official reports of a mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan, China had emerged. In that time, Zhang and his team became the first to sequence the virus behind the outbreak. With this information, they were able to alert Chinese officials of the outbreak's similarity to SARS, a lethal Coronavirus that had caused an outbreak in 2003. In another global first, Zhang uploaded the sequence to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), representing the first time the SARS-CoV-2 virus behind COVID-19 would become available outside of China (though it often takes days or weeks for NCBI submissions to be recognized). Surprisingly, Zhang received little in the way of awards and had his lab temporarily closed instead.
Just days later, on January 11, Zhang made an even more monumental move by sharing the genome of the new virus with British Virologist Edward C. Holmes. The genome was publicly posted by Holmes on a public website, immediately garnering worldwide attention. Before the threat of the new virus was even fully apparent to most outside of China, the race for a vaccine had begun.
To understand the importance of this move, one has to understand that few other labs had information on the new virus. At the same time, sharing information was still being restricted by the Chinese government. Given the circumstances, research could have been delayed by many more weeks with deadly consequences.
Instead, Zhang was able to give scientists everywhere a head start. Not only did this accelerate the creation of vaccines and treatments, but it also allowed for the development of tests that proved crucial in containing COVID from Korea to Australia. As the saying goes, however, no good deed goes unpunished.
Despite gaining deserved international recognition for his work—he even made TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, where he was called the pandemic’s “saving grace”—Zhang faced barriers at home. He lost a position at the Chinese Centers for Disease Control, and on April 29, 2024, he and his team were evicted from his lab with little warning. According to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, the lab had been closed over safety concerns, though most suspected something far more nefarious.
As with his response to COVID-19, Zhang wasted little time, quickly taking to social media to announce his lab’s closure. Soon, pictures showing his team holding protest signs began to circulate. Zhang himself set up camp outside the entrance to the lab and slept on a mattress as security guards watched on.
Fortunately, the authorities relented in the face of such highly public protests, allowing Zhang’s team to return to work. In a victorious social media post, Zhang wrote "Thank you to my online followers and people from all walks of life for your concern and strong support over the past few days!"
The world is lucky to have researchers like Zhang who are not only able to conduct vital research but stand up to authorities when necessary. However, the fact that this even happened in the first place is a troubling sign that scientists were and still are being punished for life-saving work on COVID-19. China is not alone in its handling of such scientists, but given the many viruses with pandemic potential within its borders, its actions will have international consequences.
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