(Adnkronos) – The Chinese virologist who at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, in January 2020, published the first sequence of Sars-Cov-2 without Beijing’s authorization is still challenging Xi Jinping’s China. Zhang Yongzhen is making headlines again with a rare public initiative of dissent in the Asian giant. Last weekend, the Telegraph reports, he was prevented from entering his laboratory in Shanghai. In the meantime, photos of a man sleeping in the rain in front of the door of the center began to circulate on social media. On Sunday he sat outside the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, which claims Zhang’s lab has been closed for “security reasons”, with the possibility of alternative spaces during renovations. Yet according to a statement released online by Zhang and then disappeared, but seen by the Associated Press cited by the international press, the scientist would have been offered another space, but only after the ‘eviction’ and without the standards necessary for his research. And in the disappeared Weibo post, Zhang assures that he will not give up after the measures taken for him and his team. It is “disheartening to see this continuous harassment and punishment of Zhang”, commented to the Telegraph Stuart Neil, a virologist at King’s College London involved in the research work to trace the origins of Covid and convinced that “without Zhang’s courage” it would have taken much longer for “the first vaccine to be distributed” against Covid. Scientists working with collaborators in China reported to the newspaper how international collaborations have become increasingly difficult after the pandemic. The Guardian writes that today Zhang, reached by phone, underlined that for him – already removed from the Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention – it would be “inappropriate” to speak. —internazionale/[email protected] (Web Info)
