Earlier on January, the alarming findings of China's 'Bat Woman' about the coronavirus research was shut down by Beijing as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to control information that can complicate China's image.
It was through this research that experts were able to crack the genetic code of the coronavirus. The work of renowned virologist Shi Zhengli, more popularly known as 'Bat Woman,' has set the stage for further deciphering of the virus.
Had authorities heeded Zhengli's warnings earlier, the coronavirus pandemic might not have such disastrous consequences. As of April 14, there have been more than 1,853,155 cases and 114,247 deaths reported worldwide.
China's 'Bat Woman' ignored by authorities
The center is Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli, one of the world's top researchers on coronaviruses. She discovered many viruses by studying bats, which is how she got her title. Most of the samples of SARS is similar to the coronavirus in December, though speculatively it might have started earlier.
While doing gene sequencing, she discovered it was a virus about 96% similar to the horseshoe bats in Hunan. This was the first encounter with the genome of the novel coronavirus.
Beijing quickly to shut down the study and ordered Dr Zhengli and her fellows to keep quiet about the novel coronavirus that later became the deadly COVID-19. During this time, the Premier chose to keep the information as Wuhan folks suffered from the highly-communicable disease.
China kept the information of Dr Zhengli from the world, and now most corners of the globe are in fear of the pandemic. Europe and America is now neck-deep in COVID-19 cases and deaths as of this writing.
Authorities treated breaches of information with threats
China is opposed to using the term 'Wuhan Virus' which was spread by Wuhanese and other mainlanders who were allowed to travel, that resulted in the pandemic-stricken world now. The 'coronavirus bat study' is only one of the clampdowns on information withheld knowingly by Chinese authorities.
Intent on keeping the world in the dark, Chinese journalists like Gao Yu was arrested in Wuhan, bereft of her rights for two months or more. Shi Zhengli told that her work was being stopped, according to sources from The Mail last Sunday.
Gao Yu added that he found out about the gene sequencing with other tests on January 2 but Beijing 'muzzled' the study and kept information from the west. Oddly, the information about the gene sequencing was release under the behest of Beijing, a week later.
Strict directives were given by Yanyi Wang, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, not to pass on the information.
In a bid to silence the actual truth, many doctors were punished severely for warning locals about the coming contagion. A week later, a Shanghai study was shut down for publishing online the results of the samples of an infected patient. The lab was shhut down without explanation two days after.
Two doctors, Li Wenliang and Ai Fen suffered two fates, one died from the coronavirus and one disappeared, a common connection is they ruffled feathers and things happened later.
On December 27, the world found out about the 'novel coronavirus', but by this time, it was already too late. The virus have already spread to many parts of the world.
Related article: Chinese Scientists Deny That Coronavirus Originates from Wuhan
