The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China was staging a sit-in protest after authorities locked him out of his lab.

The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China was staging a sit-in protest after authorities locked him out of his lab.

Virologist Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post Monday that he and his team had been suddenly notified they were being evicted from their lab, the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters since Zhang published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval. The move shows how the Chinese state continues to pressure and control scientists conducting research on the coronavirus.

  • @Buddahriffic
    4•7 months ago

    The fact that he’s still being harassed about this tells me that the “tight controls and competition within the Chinese public health system” aren’t actually to blame for this. Otherwise he would have been commended for doing the right thing when everyone else was holding back due to bureaucracy.

    China did a lot of sketchy shit in early 2020. I can’t think of any explanations that don’t involve them wanting covid to spread to the rest of the world once they realized it was a problem there.