Chinese COVID researcher stages sit-in protest after lab eviction – Semafor

One of Chinas leading coronavirus researchers has staged a sit-in protest outside his Shanghai lab after reportedly being kicked out, state media reported Tuesday.

Virologist Zhang Yongzhen is widely credited as the first scientist to sequence the SARS-Cov-2 virus genome, an essential step to understanding the virus and making vaccines to combat it. But Zhang, who continues to research similar viruses, has seemingly been sleeping outside his lab in recent days.

Authorities said they informed the lab it would have to close due to construction and gave the scientist two days to move everything into another facility. But Zhang, in a now-deleted Weibo post, claimed that a student informed him about the eviction, not the authorities, and that the other lab did not have the proper containment equipment and security needed to safely work with highly contagious and risky viruses.

It is unclear whether Zhang is still outside the Shanghai lab, and on Tuesday he told the Associated Press it was inconvenient for him to talk publicly about the protest. Meanwhile, state authorities have prevented most media from getting near the lab.

But Zhangs rare protest underscores the tense dynamic between the Chinese government and the public health officials and scientists who study COVID-19. China has repeatedly said it supports transparent research into the origin of the virus and is committed to sharing the data with the world, but observers outside China argue that has not been the case.

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Chinese COVID researcher stages sit-in protest after lab eviction - Semafor