A Chinese virologist blamed China for creating coronavirus in a Wuhan virology lab and deliberating releasing it on the world Tuesday.
“This virus actually is not from nature,” Dr. Li-Meng Yan told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“It is a man-made virus created in the lab based on the very unique bat coronavirus which cannot affect people but after the modifications it becomes a very harmful virus. So I have evidence to show why they can do it, what they have done, how did they do it.”
Yan released a non-peer-reviewed paper Sept. 14.
Her study claims that the “genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 is suspiciously similar to that of a bat coronavirus discovered by military laboratories” in China, purportedly suggesting that another coronavirus was used to create the novel coronavirus.
Several experts, including professors of immunology and microbiology Kristian G. Andersen and Stanley Perlman, refute the unsubstantiated claim from Dr. Li-Meng Yan.
“This simply can’t be true – there are more than 3,500 nucleotide differences between SARS-CoV-2 and these viruses,” Andersen wrote on Twitter.
A few comms on the (lack of) scientific merits of the “Yan Report”. It is non-scientific and false – cherry picking data and ignoring data disproving their hypotheses.
It’s using technical language that is impossible to decode for non-experts – poppycock dressed up as ‘science’. pic.twitter.com/Cnalk8Sjiu
— Kristian G. Andersen (@K_G_Andersen) September 16, 2020
Perlman told FactCheck.org that it would be virtually impossible to create the reverse genetics system needed to alter the virus.
The Scripps Research Institute released a study in March 2020 that stated: “An analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.”
The Director of National Intelligence issued a news release on April 30, 2020 stating that “the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.”
According to an Associated Press report from May 2020, the coronavirus may have been present in Europe in December 2019 — at the same time it was proliferating in China.
Wang Yanyi, director of the institute’s BSL-4 lab, said during an interview with NBC News that a global pandemic should not be used as a political weapon by one country against another and denied the theories that the coronavirus had leaked from the lab.
“What you’re saying is much more sinister even than what we have suggested on the show … You are saying that the Chinese government manufactured this virus, if I’m hearing you correctly. That’s what you’re saying?” Host Tucker Carlson interjected.
“Yes exactly,” the virologist responded. “Based on the virus genome, it’s basically like our fingerprint so you can see the very unusual characters in their genome, which clearly, based on the other evidence they left during the modification, we can finally see that this comes from their own special bat coronavirus.”
Yan said the truth has been suppressed because of China’s influence over the scientific community and the power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “They don’t want people to know the truth.”
President Donald Trump reveals his list of potential Supreme Court nominees in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Sept. 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump also fielded questions about the coronavirus and Bob Woodward’s new book about him. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
Yan says she was commissioned to do a report on the origins of the coronavirus but was suspended upon reaching the conclusion that she did and has become “a target” of the CCP. (RELATED: Intelligence Officials Are Taking A Serious Look At The Possibility Coronavirus Leaked From Wuhan Lab)
“If you want to know the exact motive, the exact idea … ask the Communist party … We cannot always understand their evil thinking. You have to come to ask them,” the virologist continued.
Yan went farther in her criticism of the Chinese government and explained that she is currently working on her next report at the World Health Organization’s reference lab at the University of Hong Kong. She said the spread of the virus from Wuhan was an intentional act by China to “make such damage.”
“Do you believe that the Chinese government released this intentionally, on purpose? Did they do this?”
“Yes, of course it [was] intentionally,” she said, as she accused the Chinese government of fabricating evidence about the origin of the virus, censoring the truth and making whistleblowers like her “disappear.”
Editor’s Note: The article has been updated to include more context about her non-peer-reviewed paper from experts criticizing her claims.