Yan Limeng, a former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, concocted another paper to reiterate the “man-made theory of the new crown virus” and slander China for “concealing the epidemic”. Spreading such lies that have been exposed long ago will only result in “turning over”. Less than two days after Twitter posted the link to the paper (September 14, 2020), Yan Limeng’s Twitter account was banned. Twitter officially announced as early as March 2020 that it would deal with accounts that posted content that “contradicted official public health information.”
But Yan Limeng still did not give up. On September 15, 2020 local time, she was interviewed by Fox News again and sang “Double Reed” with Trump’s “favorite anchor” Tucker Carlson.
This time, Yan Limeng brought what Carlson loved to hear, namely the so-called Chinese government “covered up the truth about the new crown virus” and “the new crown virus was created in a laboratory”. She claims to have provided “genomic evidence” in a paper co-authored by herself and three other Chinese academics.
Yan Limeng really believes in the proverb that “the more you tell a lie, the more it will come true”. In this interview, she repeated the story she told before:
On December 31, 2019, a “friend” introduced to him the situation of “human-to-human transmission” of the virus. She and her colleagues in the mainland had been discussing the new crown virus, and then suddenly everyone was “silent”. On January 16, 2020, she also reported to her supervisor, Leon Poon, a professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong. But Pan Liewen also asked him to “silence”. Malik Peiris, chair professor of the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, was also “aware of the incident” but took no action.
Later, Yan Limeng began to put gold on her face, claiming that her Twitter was blocked because of “China’s action” and that she was “a target that the Chinese government wants to disappear.”
The so-called “big news” exposed by Yan Limeng in the US media is consistent with the rumors and “conspiracy theories” that have been circulating in the US during the epidemic. Regarding these rumors, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the University of Hong Kong, and medical scientists including Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States, fully refuted them from the timeline and medical perspective.
First of all, judging from the official timeline compiled by the Chinese government, Yan Limeng’s statement that China “concealed the epidemic” is totally untenable.
As early as December 27, 2019, Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine reported viral pneumonia of unknown cause to Wuhan Jianghan District Center for Disease Control and Prevention; “Urgent Notice on Work”; and on January 12, 2020, China registered the genome sequence information of the new coronavirus in the Global Influenza Sharing Database and notified the international community of the genome virus data.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian emphasized on June 23, 2020 that the new coronavirus is a brand new virus, and discovery and recognition require a process, which is far from over yet. This is also the consensus of the international community. After the Chinese side came to the preliminary conclusion, it notified relevant parties as soon as possible, showing a responsible attitude.
The University of Hong Kong pointed out in its response in July 2020 that what Yan Limeng said was inconsistent with the facts. The University of Hong Kong stated that in fact, Yan Limeng never conducted the research on human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus that she highlighted in her interview at the University of Hong Kong between December 2019 and January 2020. Yan Limeng’s key statements in the interview are similar to rumors and have no scientific support.
As for the “artificial virus theory” promoted by Yan Limeng this time, many medical experts around the world have long refuted this assertion as a “conspiracy theory.”
In an exclusive interview with National Geographic in May 2020, Fauci stated that the scientific evidence “points very strongly” to the theory that the new coronavirus originated from nature and spread from animals to humans; Although there is no conclusion yet, there is strong evidence that the new coronavirus comes from nature, not man-made.
