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Chinese Virologist Says She Has Scientific Proof That COVID-19 Was Made In A Chinese Govt Lab At Wuhan

  • The epicentre of the pandemic, Wuhan, happens to be the global epicentre of bat coronavirus research.

Swarajya StaffSep 13, 2020, 02:52 PM | Updated 02:52 PM IST
Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan (Pic Via Twitter)

Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan (Pic Via Twitter)


In a video interview, a Chine virologist has claimed that she possesses scientific proof that the COVID-19 virus originated in a government-controlled laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The scientist Dr Li-Meng Yan was working at the Hong Kong School of Public Health when she allegedly came across the proof of coronavirus being lab-made.

She said in the interview that she came to know about the virus while studying pneumonia in Wuhan. She said that found that there was no response from the World Health Organisation when coronavirus was reported, and that the Chinese officials ignored her warnings despite being aware of the danger the world was about to face.

In the interview, Yan claimed that the virus was lab made in Wuhan, and that particular lab is controlled by the Chinese government, reports WION. She said that she was sure about her claim as she got “her intelligence from the CDC in China, from the local doctors.

She said that the argument that the virus originated in a wet market in Wuhan is “simply a smokescreen”.

Yan said she had to flee to the United States after being threatened by the Chinese officials when she wanted to tell the truth. She also accused the Chinese authorities of deleting all the information collected by her, and employing people to defame her.

Yan is now reportedly hiding in the United States as she is worried about her safety.

However, Yuan Zhiming, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had previously denied all the allegations.


Wuhan is the site of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), China’s first and only Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facility. It has been collecting large numbers of coronaviruses from bat samples ever since the original SARS outbreak of 2002-2003.

This lab is just eight miles from the Huanan live animal market that was initially thought to be the site of origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a Washington Post article dated 14 April 2020, US Embassy staff visited the WIV in 2018 and “had grave safety concerns” about biosecurity there

Wuhan is also home to a lab called the Wuhan Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (WCDPC). It is a BSL-2 lab that is just 250 metres away from the Huanan market. Here also, the bat coronaviruses have been stored in the past.

Some researchers consider Wuhan to be a rather unlikely epicentre for a natural zoonotic transfer, saying that a natural transfer would have been more plausible in the southern, subtropical provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan. This strengthens the possibility that the virus may have lab origins.

If it is the case that the COVID-19 has lab origins, this won’t be the first time in the history that this has happened.

In 1977 a laboratory in Russia (or possibly China), most likely while developing a flu vaccine, accidentally released the extinct H1N1 influenza virus that went on to become a global pandemic virus.

Reportedly, since the quelling of the original SARS outbreak in 2003, there have been six documented SARS disease outbreaks originating from research laboratories, including four in China. These outbreaks caused 13 individual infections and one death.

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