In a startling revelation, Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan, who fled Hong Kong in the wake of the new security law enacted by Beijing that grants it sweeping powers to quell dissenting voices, claimed that China was well-aware of the deadly coronavirus and virulence of the deadly virus long before it said it did and asserted that the WHO advisor Professor Malik Peiris did nothing to alert others despite knowing about the virulence of the virus.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Yan contended that the research that she was doing at the start of the pandemic that could have saved millions of lives was overlooked by her supervisors, some of them amongst the best in the world in this field.
“I know how China treats whistleblower”: Li-Meng Yan
Yan, who has now gone into hiding, fearing retribution from the Chinese authorities, claimed that the communist government in China is trying to besmirch her reputation and accused them of commissioning a cyber attack against the virologist, in a bid to keep her silent.
The scientist who had fled China is paranoid about her life being in danger because of her revelations against the Chinese government and WHO adviser. She fears that she will never be able to go back to her home again and will have to live with the bitter reality that she might not be able to see her family and friends again.
Speaking with the Fox News from an undisclosed location, Yan said, “I reason I came to the United States because I am carrying COVID’s message of truth. If I had been revealed this from China, I would have disappeared and killed.”
China’s cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak
Yan’s claims reinforce the prevailing belief that China has deliberately bungled the initial response to the coronavirus and its attempts later to cover-up the pandemic that is galloping across the globe. Yan said that China had intentionally delayed in sharing crucial information about the virulence of the virus, allowing the contagion to spread like a wildfire across the world.
The virologist said that she is one of the first few scientists in the world to study the coronavirus, claiming that she was asked by her supervisor at the University/WHO reference lab in 2019 to look into the odd cluster of SARS-like cases coming out of mainland China at the end of December 2019.
China’s CDC knew about the virulence of COVID-19
According to the virologist, her friend, who was a scientist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China, had first-hand knowledge of the cases and reportedly informed her on December 31 of human-to-human transmission long before either China or the WHO would admit such a case.
About 10 days later, on January 9, WHO released an official statement saying, “According to the Chinese authorities, the virus in question can cause severe illness in some patients and does not transmit readily between people… There is limited information to determine the overall risk of this reported cluster.”
Yan claims that suddenly after WHO’s press release, scientists across the country, who were having conversations about the virulence of the contagion went mum and others were warned by the authorities to not to ask them for details.
Recently, the WHO had quietly changed the timeline of the coronavirus on its website saying it got the information about COVID-19 from WHO scientists and not the Chinese authorities. However, about six months ago, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had claimed that the organization was informed about COVID-19 from China.
