In the early days of 2020, the entire world was facing a new outbreak of a virus about which there was little information. Zhang Yongzhen, a virologist, was the first to decode the genetic sequence of the virus that causes Covid-19.
The discovery was a crucial step in combating the pandemic, opening the door to identifying the virus and creating vaccines to combat it. But for Zhang, work created obstacles to his work.
Last Thursday, Zhang and his team were alerted that they had to leave their laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. The pretext, according to a publication by the virologist that was later deleted, was that the laboratory would be renovated, giving the research team just two days to leave.
In protest, on Sunday and Monday nights, Zhang decided to sleep outside the laboratory. To Nature, the virologist described his situation as “horrible”. “They don’t know what I went through,” he says.
It worked. This Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said in a statement that Zhang’s laboratory was closed for “security reasons” and that an alternative laboratory was offered. On the same day, the team received a notification following the eviction order.
On social media, Zhang announced this Wednesday that the clinical center “provisionally accepted” that he and his team return to the laboratory and continue their research.
Zhang’s torment began on January 5, 2020, when he decoded the virus and wrote an internal warning to Chinese authorities about the potential for the virus to spread. The following day, the virologist’s laboratory was ordered to temporarily close by the Chinese public health entity.
At the same time, China reported that several dozen people were being treated for infection with a respiratory disease in the central city of Wuhan. Zhang published his coronavirus sequence on January 11, 2020, despite the lack of authorization.
