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Foreword
The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has alerted the scientific community to the urgency and importance of in-depth research on new viruses. However, a special investigation on basic resources aimed at finding the virulent pathogens of natural foci in China has been approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, but recently it has been unable to get the approval of funds due to the delay in stamping by the higher authorities.
It is noteworthy that Zhang Yongzhen’s team was one of the earliest teams in China to detect Covid-19, and it was the first to publish the Covid-19 gene sequence on the Internet on January 11th this year.
Author | Wang Yiwei
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The application for stamping has not been approved for more than two months.
"Never (it has been delayed for so long). This is an unimaginable situation." On August 4, Yang Shoushan (a pseudonym), a professor at a domestic university, told Intellectuals on the phone.
Yang Shoushan is a scientist who studies marine viruses in China. This year, he will work with 55 other researchers from 9 domestic units to carry out a project called "Scientific Investigation of Virus Resources of Major Natural Focuses in China" (hereinafter referred to as "Virus Resources Investigation").
This project is one of the 27 basic resources investigation projects proposed and established by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2019. According to the documents of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 27 special projects are basic work oriented to scientific goals and national strategic needs, and will be appointed as executors from the declared scientific research teams [1].
On December 16, 2019, the Institute of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Infectious Diseases) in Changping, Beijing was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology to take the lead in undertaking the special investigation of virus resources. The project leader was Zhang Yongzhen, a researcher and virologist of the Institute, with a project budget of 13.58 million yuan.
The special project was originally planned to be launched in January this year. Due to the epidemic situation in COVID-19, the time for submitting the project task book to the Ministry of Science and Technology can be postponed to May.
Yang Shoushan told Intellectuals that on May 27th, the project team submitted an application for seal to its superior unit, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (hereinafter referred to as China CDC), but until the beginning of August, the task book of this special project was still not submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology, because the task book was still audited by China CDC. In sharp contrast, the other 26 projects in the same period have submitted task books.
Yang Shoushan said that submitting the paper version of the project task book is the last step before obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The task book needs to be submitted to the recommending unit and stamped with the official seal of the recommending unit, and then submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The recommendation unit of this project is the National Health and Wellness Committee.
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What’s the reason for not stamping?
Why has the project applied by China CDC been "delayed" for so long? Yang Shoushan said it was difficult to understand.
"As long as it is established, signing the task book is a process. (The Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Science and Technology Office of China CDC) are all in the same yard, and it will be completed in one day."
Yang Shoushan introduced the detailed process of the project team after submitting the seal application.
First, on June 9th, China CDC returned Zhang Yongzhen’s seal application to the Institute of Infectious Diseases, and raised three questions about written documents.
On June 18th, Zhang Yongzhen’s project team was asked by the Institute of Infectious Diseases to give answers to three questions. On the same day, Zhang Yongzhen’s project team gave a reply. Since then, the information handed in has been like a stone, and there has been no feedback.
The documents obtained by Intellectuals show that there are three problems in the written document proposed by China CDC, including that the cover of the task book is not stamped with the official seal of the legal person, and the objectives and indicators in the task book of sub-project 1 are inconsistent with the declaration, and it is required to review whether the undertaking unit of sub-project 1 of the project can carry out virulent virus research.
"The first question is that you didn’t stamp it. Isn’t that a lie? It’s clearly stamped on it"; Yang Shoushan said, "It is also said that the contract assessment indicators are inconsistent and actually consistent; Our work does not involve virus culture, and we don’t need P3 (qualification). We all do inactivated viruses. " He said that the electronic version of the task book was submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology for approval before the final stamping process, and the Ministry of Science and Technology could not modify it after the review.
On July 3rd, the Institute of Infectious Diseases once again asked the project team to provide the task contract of Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan CDC), one of the participating units of the project, otherwise the follow-up process could not be carried out.
Yang Shoushan told Intellectuals that the project involves the cooperation of nine units, and Wuhan CDC is one of them. It was originally responsible for the collection of some samples and needed to sign a sub-task contract with the Institute of Infectious Diseases. However, on January 12 this year, Wuhan CDC announced that it would terminate its cooperation with Zhang Yongzhen’s team and stop participating in the "virus resource investigation" project. The above opinions also appeared in a written material stamped with the official seal of Wuhan CDC seen by Intellectuals.
Yang Shoushan said that the withdrawal of Wuhan CDC "will not affect the progress of the project", and at the end of April, the Ministry of Science and Technology had been informed and agreed to take the withdrawal process, that is, the project team could submit the stamped task book with explanatory materials for the record, but the Infectious Diseases Institute replied that Wuhan CDC could not submit the task book for review if it did not give the contract.
"In fact, I just found an excuse not to leave the process." Yang Shoushan believes that the Institute of Infectious Diseases is the lead unit of the project, and the China CDC is the superior unit. It is unreasonable to "card yourself": "For example, if you sell a machine to others, you have to change a part, which will not affect the function. The buyers all agreed, and your father said no, not to sell. "
As of press time, neither China CDC nor Institute of Infectious Diseases responded to the inquiry of Intellectuals about this matter.
In the same period, the person in charge of another basic resource investigation project told Intellectuals that the project they undertook had been submitted with the task book sealed by the recommending unit in May, and the Ministry of Science and Technology had also started to contact the team on financial matters. In early July, the project held a kick-off meeting and started work. He said that he had never heard of the submission of similar project cards in the task book before.
"Intellectuals" learned from different sources that 27 research projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 26 of which have been submitted with official seals, have gone through the formalities. According to public information [4], four simultaneous projects led by the Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Microbiology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, First Institute of Oceanography of Ministry of Natural Resources, Pearl River Water Conservancy Research Institute and other institutions have held kick-off meetings to mark the start of the projects.
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To prevent new outbreaks, virus investigation should be preceded.
In Yang Shoushan’s view, the virus investigation project is "urgent". Outbreaks like Covid-19 have caused incalculable losses to society and individuals, and all the new outbreaks of infectious diseases in China since 2000 have come from wild animals. Knowing the virus distribution in nature in advance is the first step to prevent new outbreaks.
Previously, Shi Zhengli, a researcher at Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, also called for [3] that pathogen monitoring is very important to prevent coronavirus from entering human society. "We can monitor these viruses that exist in nature, take the initiative to find patients, assess risks, warn in advance, and move the barrier of prevention forward at a little cost. Find the virus before it finds us. "
"Teacher Zhang Yongzhen has always advocated to find out the family background, to know the number, distribution and law of viruses in natural foci in China, and to achieve early detection, early analysis and early warning of the epidemic after finding out this. This is the purpose of our team." Yang Shoushan said. The project is expected to last for 60 months. It will investigate the viruses carried by wild animals on land and in the sea of China, analyze the genome characteristics of more than 150 new viruses with 450 subtypes, identify potential pathogenic strains, and finally establish a standardized national animal sample and virus resource library.
As a researcher at the Institute of Infectious Diseases, Zhang Yongzhen currently works in institutes of biomedical sciences and Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centers. He and his team have been engaged in the discovery and research of new viruses for a long time, and have discovered more than 2,000 new viruses. Yang Shoushan introduced that Zhang Yongzhen’s team has maintained a cooperative relationship with Wuhan CDC for more than ten years, analyzing and studying the samples of patients with unexplained pneumonia and fever provided by Wuhan CDC.
On January 5th, Zhang Yongzhen’s team detected Covid-19 in the samples sent by Wuhan CDC and reported it to Shanghai Health and Health Commission and National Health Commission and other competent authorities. On January 11th, the team released the gene sequence of Covid-19 for the first time in Virological.org, a forum on virus evolution analysis and epidemiology. [5]
"We also know that some leaders are unhappy with some of our achievements and feel that they have disrupted their plans … but this matter has already passed. This project was established in 19 years, and it is totally irrelevant to the epidemic. As a result, we are also very angry about using these to cheat, "Yang Shoushan said." But now we are also adjusting our mentality and doing things well. "
Although it has not been approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the time being, some key research can not be stopped, such as the collection of marine viruses. April-June is the key period for going to sea. In order not to delay the progress, Yang Shoushan, who is in charge of marine virus collection, can only use the surplus funds of other projects to go to sea first. However, until the end of the scientific research project on July 8, there was still no progress in the sealing of the task book.
Zhang Yongzhen’s project team has contacted the Institute of Infectious Diseases and China CDC for many times, and Yang Shoushan also made a voice in Weibo in mid-June to disclose the situation of the project being blocked, but none of them got an effective response. At present, the project is "closed" on the website of the Ministry of Science and Technology, indicating that the time for submitting the task book has passed. Some preparatory work for the project is already under way, but due to lack of funds, some research groups may not use the remaining project funds to advance the work first.
On August 1st, the project team held a kick-off meeting to cheer everyone up. "Without funds, the work will continue," Yang Shoushan said. He said that in the end, he hoped that the project book could be stamped as soon as possible and submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Plate making editor | Pipi Fish
