'I won't quit, won't leave': Chinese scientist who released coronavirus genome defiant after being evicted from his lab

Chinese scientist Zhang Yongzhen was the first to release the genome of coronavirus. (Photo: AP)

Chinese scientist Zhang Yongzhen, who was the first to publish the genome of the coronavirus causing Covid-19, is holding a protest after being evicted from his lab in Shanghai.

Zhang is staging a sit-in protest after being locked out of his lab. While the authorities have said they have offered an alternative space to Zhang, he has said the new facility does not have safety features needed to carry out his research. He has also said that the new lab’s offer was not made until he started his protest.

Zhang has been repeatedly harassed by China’s authorities since he released the genome of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease, in January 2020 despite a gag order from the Chinese regime.

Since the first outbreak of Covid-19 in China’s Wuhan city, the Chinese regime has been accused of withholding information from the world that could have allowed the world to respond to the pandemic must faster and better.

‘I won’t quit, won’t leave’: Yongzhen stages sit-in protest against eviction

Even though the Chinese authorities have offered him alternative space, Zhang is sleeping outside of his locked lab and has refused to leave, according to Associated Press.

The report said that guards stopped Zhang from entering his lab over the weekend. Photographs from the site seen by the news agency show Zhang sitting outside the lab on flattened cardboard in rain.

“I won’t leave. I won’t quit. I am pursuing science and the truth! The Public Health Center are refusing to let me and my students go inside the laboratory office to take shelter,” said Zhang in a now-deleted post on Chinese social media platform Weibo, as per AP.

On its part, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said that Zhang’s lab was being renovated and was locked for “safety reasons”, as per the report.

The report said the ban on Zhang was the “latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters” since he published the genome in 2020. The genome refers to the genetic structure of the organism — coronavirus in this case. The genome is critical for the development of a vaccine.

Why Zhang Yongzhen angered Chinese regime, how China hid Covid-19 facts

In January 2020, Zhang Yongzhen and his team were the first to map the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2.

On January 3, 2020, they received the sample of the virus.

On January 5, they completed the mapping of the genome and sent it to Chinese authorities. Zhang also posted it on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s (NCBI) GenBank database but under embargo till July 12 — apparently in response to Chinese regime’s indications that it did not want the world to learn about the viral outbreak.

Two days earlier, on January 3, China’s National Health Commission had ordered Chinese institutions to not publish anything related to the outbreak in Wuhan.

Then, Zhang travelled to Wuhan and met Chinese officials, according to Time. He said in an interview with the magazine that he shared with officials his conclusion from studying the genome that the virus was spreading via respiratory tracts.

“I had two judgements: first that it was a SARS-like virus; second, that the virus transmits by the respiratory tract. And so, I had two suggestions: that we should take some emergency public measures to protect against this disease; also, clinics should develop antiviral treatments,” said Zhang.

Meanwhile, Zhang had also shared the viral genome with Edward Holmes of Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at University of Sydney. He called Zhang on January 11 and prodded him for permission to release the genome.

On January 11, Zhang gave Holmes the go-ahead to release the genome and that’s how the world learnt about the genome six days after it was actually mapped and that too from an unofficial source as the Chinese authorities had issued a gag order and Zhang could not release it himself.

Even though the genome was released, Zhang’s findings about the virus spreading through respiratory tract were not released. It was not until January 20 that China confirmed human-to-human transmission. It took two more weeks to formally confirm that the virus was airborne in nature. Throughout this time, the virus kept on circulating as the world was not aware of its airborne nature and precautions were not widespread.

Later, it was also revealed that even though Chinese scientists did not map the genome till January 5 and it was released until January 11, that too without permission by a third-party, the genome had been somehow shared with vaccine manufacturers to develop diagnostics on January 3 and vaccine-maker Sinopharm had started to develop a vaccine on January 4 itself, according to VIRAL: The Search for Covid Origin, an investigative book by scientist Alina Chan and science writer Matt Ridley.