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Chinese scientist who first shared Covid-19 genome data sparks sympathy after lab closure battle
- Virologist Zhang Yongzhen, who camped outside his Shanghai lab after parent hospital shut him out, has provoked wave of public sympathy and questions
- Man on Nature magazine’s 10 most influential people list in 2020 has ‘faced obstacles’ since releasing Covid genome sequence without approval.
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Yuanyue Dangin Beijing
The ordeal of the first scientist to release the Covid-19 genome sequence – who found his laboratory in Shanghai suddenly closed earlier this week – has sparked widespread sympathy on Chinese social media and also questions about the government’s treatment of the noted virologist.
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Zhang Yongzhen, 59, spent two nights sleeping outside his lab in protest after he was refused entry on Sunday, with parent hospital Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre citing “renovation plans”.
On Wednesday, he said he and his team had been allowed back into the facility “for the time being”.
“It has been tentatively agreed to let normal research be resumed in our lab, and team members are now free to enter for the time being,” Zhang posted on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo early on Wednesday morning.
However, he added that the future relocation of the laboratory, his students’ research, and the collaboration between his team and the health centre were “pending issues that will be further communicated and resolved”.
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