Dr Li-Meng Yan’s world turned upside down the moment she alleged that the Covid-19 virus originated in a lab in China. Fearing for her life, the young virologist had to flee Hong Kong where she had been working since 2012. She is now in New York, but her family back home is being monitored closely by the Chinese Communist Party and she has been forced to cut off all contact with them.
But Yan is in no mood to give up. In an exclusive video interview with THE WEEK, she reiterated the lab origin theory of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and challenged her detractors—including the Chinese government and some of her own peers—to prove that she was wrong. She did not even spare the World Health Organization, where her husband is currently employed. Yan said she could be killed any moment by the Chinese government, but she appeared unperturbed. The truth is important, not me, she said.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q/Can you describe your present state of mind?
This story is from the October 11, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the October 11, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
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