Virologist's Claim Covid-19 Was Made In Lab False, Genome Suggests It Originated In Wildlife

12 October 2020 - Correction: The story was originally sourced by the UK-based talk show, 'Loose Women' which had inconclusive factual information quoted below. We regret the error in fact-checking, and subsequently the story has been corrected with latest facts on the subject matter since the time of publishing.

Original Published Date: 12 September 2020

A Chinese virologist, who is reportedly in hiding, has claimed that she has scientific evidence that proves that COVID-19 was made in a lab in China.

However, her claims have been debunked as experts have determined that the genetic features of SARS-CoV-2 are common in other coronaviruses come from animals in nature. Therefore, these features do not prove in any way that the virus was constructed in a laboratory or genetically modified.

Dr Li-Meng Yan is reportedly in hiding in order to protect herself from the Chinese government.

Handout

She said that she did some of the earliest research into COVID-19 last year and revealed the information during an interview on British talk show 'Loose Women'.

She was asked where the novel coronavirus has come from and Dr Yan, who was in present via video chat from a secret location, said, ¡°It comes from the lab ¡ª the lab in Wuhan and the lab is controlled by China¡¯s government.¡±

Dr Yan has not provided any substantial and credible source of data to support her claim. Experts have debunked a pre-print (an unpublished draft of a science paper) shared by Dr Yan and said that it contains unsubstantiated claims. Which means that her claims that the virus is man-made is incorrect.

She also emphasised that the fact that the virus originated from a wet market in Wuhan, China is a 'smokescreen'.

She said, ¡°The first thing is the [meat] market in Wuhan¡­is a smokescreen and this virus is not from nature."

A 17 March 2020 study published in Nature Medicine concluded that SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in pangolins or bats and later developed the ability to infect humans.

YouTube

She has previously accused Beijing of lying about the virus. Yan said that her former supervisors at the Hong Kong School of Public Health which is a reference laboratory for the World Health Organisation, told her to keep quiet when she alerted the authorities about human-to-human transmission in December last year.

During her interview, Yan says that she fled the country and escaped to America. She also claims to have scientific evidence which proves that the virus was made in a lab in Wuhan. She said that she is planning to release the data.

She said, ¡°The genome sequence is like a human finger print. So based on this you can identify these things. I use the evidence¡­to tell people why this has come from the lab in China, why they are the only ones who made it.¡±

Simply put, the genetic features of SARS-CoV-2 used to support the claim that the virus is man-made are not unique. The pre-print does not provide any evidence that the virus has been created in a laboratory setting, and thus the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is man-made remains unsupported by scientific evidence.

East Mojo

Also read: Scientist Revive 100 Million Year Old Microbes In Lab, Prove Life On Earth Is Timeless