Since the Wuhan virus first made itself known to the world in January 2020, there have been stories about its origin. Initially, China blamed bats sold at its famous Wuhan wet market. However, it soon became apparent that the virus did not originate with local bats. By February, Sen. Tom Cotton was suggesting that the virus originated in a lab. The current operating hypothesis is that the Chinese government was researching a bat virus at its lab, only to have a careless accident release it into the general public. This hypothesis may change when Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a Hong Kong virologist who is hiding from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), releases what she claims is irrefutable proof that the Chinese manufactured the virus.

Sen. Tom Cotton suggested in mid-February, when the world was beginning to come to terms with what China had unleashed, that the virus was not zoonotic – meaning that it did not jump from animals to humans – but was instead created in a Chinese lab and intended as a form of germ warfare, even if the release itself was accidental. The Washington Post firmly announced that he was repeating a debunked conspiracy theory. (So did HuffPo, Yahoo News, and The Daily Beast, to name just a few.)

Yan, who was based in Hong Kong, not mainland China, had done research in China during the virus’s initial outbreak. She knew, therefore, that Sen. Cotton was correct that the virus had escaped from a lab, rather than a wet market. That’s why, by the end of April, Yan had sneaked out of Hong Kong and placed herself in hiding from the CCP, which wanted to “disappear” her. By July, she was telling the world Beijing knew that there was a dangerous virus abroad in China long before it admitted to that fact, and that the virus was spread by person-to-person contact.

In a bombshell interview on Friday, Yan confirmed that Sen. Cotton was also correct that China created the virus in its laboratory near Wuhan. Although she’s still in hiding, Yan spoke with Loose Women, a news show on Britain’s ITV channel.

Yan explained that this is not mere supposition on her part. Although the Chinese government has removed all of her data from its databases, she has enough data at hand to publish a report proving the virus’s laboratory origin.

Although Yan generally indicted Beijing for lying about everything connected with the virus, as well as intimidating scientists and the World Health Organization into covering for its lies, the bombshell was her claim that the virus is manmade (beginning at 3:35):

This virus is not from nature. This is based on the China Military Institute discovered and owned some bat coronavirus named CC45 and ZXC21. Based on that, after-lab modification, [it] becomes the norovirus.

[snip]

I have my intelligence from the CDCs in China, from the local doctors, from doctors and other people around China. So, also based on my evidence, I work on vaccine and also biology, immunology in the University of Hong Kong. All these things get together, clearly shown, and now get verified. These are the truths. All the other things are covered up.

[snip]

It comes from the lab, the lab in Wuhan. And the lab is controlled by China.

Yan admitted that it was difficult to prove that the virus is manmade, but she’s been working alone and with other scientists on the project since January. She clailms that they will soon publish proof about the virus’s manmade origins.

The genome sequence is like a human fingerprint. So based on this you can recognize [and] identify these things. So, I use the evidence that exists in the genome sequence of [unintelligible] to tell people why this has come from the lab in China, why they are the only ones who made it. And also everyone who even have no biology knowledge, you can read it, and you can check and identify, verify by yourself. This is the critical thing for us to know the origins of the virus. If not, we cannot overcome it. It will be life-threatening for everyone in our life.

Yan has not alleged that China deliberately released the virus as a way of waging germ warfare against the world. For now, it’s reasonable to believe that the release was a careless accident. Nevertheless, the fact that China made the virus, then lied about it, and is now withholding from the world information about the virus’s genetic make-up (and, therefore, ways to treat or vaccinate against the virus) still means that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a form of low-level germ warfare against the rest of the world.

As someone in Hong Kong memorably said, “Don’t trust China. China is asshole.”

Image credit: Pixabay public domain