Scientist who fled China says COVID-19 was 'created in military lab'

A LEADING Chinese scientist has published research claiming the coronavirus came from a military lab in China and not from a wet market.

Dr Li Meng-Yan, a specialist in virology at Hong Kong's School of Public Health, released a paper on the open-access repository website Zenote. The paper shows how SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) could be “conveniently created” in a laboratory setting in six months.

The paper is titled “Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route.”

The Professor wrote: “The natural origin theory, although widely accepted, lacks substantial support.

“The alternative theory that the virus may have come from a research laboratory is, however, strictly censored on peer-reviewed scientific journals.

“Nonetheless, SARS-CoV-2 shows biological characteristics that are inconsistent with a naturally occurring, zoonotic virus.”

Dr Li-Meng’s news comes after claims she made on British talk show Loose Women.

During the interview on Friday, she claimed the coronavirus “comes from the lab — the lab in Wuhan and the lab is controlled by China’s government”.

She added: “The first thing is the [meat] market in Wuhan … is a smokescreen and this virus is not from nature.”

She said that she got “her intelligence from the CDC in China, from the local doctors”.

Dr Li-Meng said she was one of the first scientists in the world to study coronavirus.

She was allegedly asked by her supervisor at the University to look into the odd cluster of SARS-like cases occurring in Wuhan at the end of December 2019.

But after presenting her findings, Dr Li-Meng claimed her supervisors at first advised her to continue her investigation but later she said to "keep silent and be careful".

But the academic later fled Hong Kong and escaped to the USA to raise awareness about the pandemic and feared for her safety.