Yuen, who is also an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, visited Wuhan with other doctors at the invitation of the central government in mid-January as part of an expert group that later confirmed the coronavirus was spreading between people.

Quarantine personnel in protective gear collect samples at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan on January 22. Photo: Simon Song

The other author was Yuen’s protégé, Dr David Lung, an honorary assistant professor with the department of microbiology of the University of Hong Kong, who is also a clinical microbiologist specialising in paediatric infectious diseases at the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital.

They wrote that epidemiological studies indicated the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei province, was where the virus spread.

The article went on to defend the media’s early references to the “Wuhan virus”, despite the World Health Organisation labelling the disease Covid-19 and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses naming the virus Sars-Cov-2.

Yuen and Lung argued “Wuhan virus” was a layman’s term established through convention and usage, one that was easy to understand and communicate to people.

But perhaps the most inflammatory claim was contained in their criticism of China for failing to shut wildlife markets in the aftermath of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003. They said the trade and consumption of wild animals was a manifestation of the “inferior culture” of Chinese people.