A Chinese virologist, who has been claiming for months that the appearance of the new coronavirus has been hidden by China, says she is convinced that SARS-CoV-2 would have been manufactured in the laboratory.
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Dr Li-Meng Yan, a specialist in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, said in an interview with a UK talk show, Loose Woman, that Beijing knew about the coronavirus long before reports began to appear. emerge.
The specialist says she was forced to flee Hong Kong, and is believed to be hiding in a secret location, fearing for her life. According to him, the Chinese government has “removed all incriminating information” from government databases.
According to him, the alleged outbreak in a Wuhan market is just a smokescreen. The virus is said to have been made by humans.
“The genome sequence is like a human fingerprint,” she explained in an interview. And based on that, you can identify these things. I’m going to use this evidence to tell people why it came from the lab in China, why they did it, ”she said.
Shortly before fleeing China, her peers and colleagues were reportedly ordered to spread rumors about her in order to discredit her.
“They deleted all my information and also told people to spread rumors about me that I am a liar, I don’t know anything. They are trying to control my family and my friends and suddenly I no longer exist, ”lamented the scientist.
The first to work on the virus
The virologist worked at a prestigious university in Hong Kong, one of the world’s leading infectious disease research centers that is part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Epidemiology Network.
Dr Yan says she was one of the first scientists to study the coronavirus. As early as December 2019, his supervisor at the university asked him to examine a cluster of SARS-like cases, which had broken out in mainland China.
Through her medical and scientific contacts, she claims to have observed a cover-up of gigantic proportions.
“During my investigation, what I found, I reported to my supervisor, there was no response because everyone was worried. So I kept silent, I knew I had to tell people because it was urgent, ”she added.
She maintains that no one responded to her human-to-human transmission reports, out of fear of the Chinese government. She claims to have continued to conduct her investigation in secret.
China’s National Health Commission denied that the outbreak started in the lab, saying there was no evidence the new coronavirus was created in a lab.
The Chinese government has said since the start of the pandemic, and from the appearance of the first cases in Wuhan, to have carried out investigations and implemented measures to stem the spread of the virus.
Origin of the virus still unknown
The American intelligence services announced last April that they had come to the conclusion that the new coronavirus had not been created by humans or genetically modified, thus denying widely circulating rumors.
“The intelligence services join the broad consensus of the scientific community to agree that the COVID-19 virus was not created by humans or genetically modified,” said a statement released at the time.
“The intelligence community will continue to rigorously study the information and intelligence that emerges to determine whether the epidemic began with contact with infected animals or whether it was the result of a laboratory accident in Wuhan,” the city China, where the pandemic started, the statement concluded.
A few days later, the head of American diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, assured to have “immense proof” that the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan (center) – the city where it was spotted at the end of 2019.
However, he added: “We are not sure”.
The Secretary of State assured that there was no inconsistency: “We have no certainty, and there is significant evidence that it comes from the laboratory, these statements are both true”.
Chinese television on Monday deemed these comments “insane” and the World Health Organization (WHO) denounced “speculative” statements in the absence of evidence.
“Mr. Pompeo has spoken several times, but he cannot present any evidence. Why ? Because he has none, ”Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Wednesday.
According to the vast majority of researchers, the coronavirus was transmitted to humans from an animal. A Wuhan market has been blamed by Chinese scientists for allegedly selling live wild animals. They study viral diseases.
