Top Shanghai pandemic expert slammed as ‘irresponsible’ for saying Covid is on its way out of China
- Neurobiologist Rao Yi’s scathing WeChat post comes day after Shanghai infectious diseases expert Zhang Wenhong’s comments at Sino-US forum
- ‘Nobody can rule out the possibility that the virus will be with us forever or that an explosion of cases will happen thrice a year,’ according to Rao
“Yesterday, a doctor made some irresponsible comments,” noted neurobiologist Rao Yi said in a post on WeChat, a social media platform.
“The fact is nobody can say with certainty today in which direction the Covid pandemic would go,” Rao wrote on Sunday. “Nobody can rule out the possibility that the virus will be with us forever, or that an explosion of cases will happen thrice a year with varying degrees of severity.”
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Rao’s comments directed at Zhang, who the previous day had told a Sino-US Forum on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Shanghai that China’s pandemic exit was a foregone conclusion.
Zhang, the top Covid-19 adviser to the Shanghai government, is a household name in China for his candid comments about the pandemic.
He is also director of the infectious diseases department at Huashan Hospital of Shanghai’s Fudan University.
Without directly naming Zhang, Rao said some doctors in China tended to comment on issues beyond their realm of knowledge, some of which misled the public and officials.
