1. Li-Meng Yan or Yan Limeng is a Chinese virologist, known for her publications and interviews alleging that SARS-CoV-2 was made in a Chinese government laboratory.
12 Facts About Li-Meng Yan
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Li-Meng Yan's publications have been considered flawed by the wider scientific community.
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Li-Meng Yan received her Master of Medicine from Xiangya Medical College of Central South University in China.
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Between September 2020 and March 2021, Li-Meng Yan authored a series of four preprint research papers, wherein she argued that SARS-CoV-2 did not emerge naturally in a "spillover from animals," but rather was produced in a laboratory.
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Li-Meng Yan's preprints were posted to the Zenodo platform, an open-access repository where anyone can post their research.
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Li-Meng Yan's preprint was promoted by the Rule of Law Society, a political organisation affiliated with Steve Bannon, former Trump strategist, and Guo Wengui, an expatriate Chinese billionaire, in November 2020.
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The lack of financial disclosure in Li-Meng Yan's papers was described as a lapse in ethical transparency by Dr Adam Lauring, particularly when publishing "what are essentially conspiracy theories that are not founded in fact".
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In November 2020, The New York Times reported that Li-Meng Yan's "trajectory was carefully crafted" by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui, who played to rising anti-Chinese sentiments, with the goal of bringing down China's government and distracting from the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Times article pointed out that Guo and Bannon arranged for Li-Meng Yan to fly first class to the United States, arranged lodging, coached her on media appearances, and arranged interviews for her with conservative media hosts such as Lou Dobbs and Tucker Carlson.
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Li-Meng Yan claimed in interviews that she became aware of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in late December 2019, and that she attempted to communicate the risks to her superiors in late December 2019 or early January 2020.
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Li-Meng Yan stated that the Chinese government and the World Health Organization knew about the person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 earlier than they reported or made public, and she stated that the Chinese government suppressed both her research and that of others.
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An official statement issued by HKU on 11 July 2020 confirmed that Li-Meng Yan was formerly a post-doctoral researcher at the institution, but disputed the accuracy of other elements of her account, adding that "Dr Li-Meng Yan never conducted any research on human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus at HKU", and that many of her claims had no scientific basis.