In a post on Weibo, Zhang wrote that the existing vaccines may not be able to completely prevent coronavirus infections, and transmissions might still occur even after the entire population is fully vaccinated — though at a lesser speed and causing fewer deaths, according to a CNN report.

"What we've been through is not the hardest part. What's harder is finding the wisdom to coexist with the virus in the long run," wrote Zhang, who has been repeatedly compared to US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci for being a widely trusted voice on the pandemic, it said.

Learning to live with the virus is hardly an outrageous proposition. Like Zhang, most of the scientific community believes that Covid-19 may not go anytime soon.

More and more countries with high vaccination rates — such as Britain and Singapore — are trying to adopt a strategy of coexistence with the disease, hoping it would become a milder endemic, like the flu.

But in China, Zhang's remarks were responded to by a flurry of attacks online, with critics accusing him of rejecting the much hyped zero-Covid strategy, the report stated.

Some irate citizens dubbed him a "traitor" who "blindly worshiped Western ideas."

Others alleged he was conniving with foreign forces to disrupt China's Covid response.

Some others undermined his academic credentials, accusing him of plagiarism.

Zhang's alma mater and where he currently teaches - Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University - said in a statement Sunday that it had received several complaints against the scientist, the CNN report informed.

The university said it had launched an investigation to verify the claims of plagiarism.

The outpour of anger against Zhang is a stark revelation that how politicized is the nature of discussions around China's Covid-19 strategy.

As China was able to curb the infection initially, its ruling Communist Party blew hard the country's effective containment measure as proof of the supposed superiority of its authoritarian political system.

China's zero-Covid strategy is praised as an ideological and moral victory over the Covid responses of the US and other Western countries, which had grappled to control rising cases and fatalities.

Those political overtones were highlighted in a commentary published on August 7 by party mouthpiece the People's Daily, CNN stated in the report.

In the article, former health minister Gao Qiang attacked the idea of "coexisting with the virus," accusing the US and Britain of "disregarding people's health and safety" and causing a resurgence of outbreaks, stated the report.

"This is a mistake in Covid decision-making caused by the defects in the political systems of countries like the US and the UK, as well as an inevitable result of advocating individualistic values," wrote Gao, who was trained as an economist, it further said.

In a veiled attack on Zhang, the former minister said he was surprised to note that some Chinese experts were advocating in favour of the coexistence approach.

Gao's article has further intensified anger against Zhang, while appearing to support the government's commitment to the zero-Covid approach.

This stance of the government appeared to be reinforced on August 11, when a teacher was detained by police in the eastern province of Jiangxi for 15 days for making remarks on a news article saying the country can "coexist with the coronavirus," according to a local government notice.

But still, many experts, scholars and supporters have rallied to Zhang's defense.