China Boots Scientist Who Shared COVID Data From Lab

UPDATE May 1, 2024 1:00 AM CDT The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang had been staging a sit-in protest outside his lab since the weekend after he and his team were suddenly notified they had to leave their lab, a sign of Beijing's continuing pressure on scientists conducting research on the coronavirus. Apr 30, 2024 10:05 AM CDT The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China staged a sit-in protest outside his lab after authorities locked him out of the facility-a sign of Beijing's continuing pressure on scientists conducting research on the coronavirus, per the AP. 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 the virologist published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval. The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said Zhang's lab was being renovated and was closed for "Safety reasons." It added that it had provided Zhang's team an alternative laboratory space. Zhang wrote online that his team wasn't offered an alternative until after they were notified of their eviction, and that the lab offered didn't meet safety standards for conducting their research, leaving his team in limbo. Zhang's latest difficulty reflects how China has sought to control information related to the virus: An AP investigation found that the government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace it from the first weeks of the outbreak. An AP reporter was blocked by a guard at an entrance to the compound housing Zhang's lab.