Critical Analysis of the New Preprint that Claims Proof for Bioengineered SARS-CoV-2
Taking a hard look at their arguments and data, instead of attacking their credibility.
Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a former virologist at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, fled the country in April to the U.S. She said she “will be disappeared and killed” if she tries to speak up in China. In the U.S., she has been making headlines that humans created SARS-CoV-2 (that causes Covid-19), which was then released on purpose. And she has ‘proof’ for that, which she released as a preprint this week, titled “Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route.”
Many have discredited the paper — calling it a ‘poppycock’ — because it is not peer-reviewed and affiliated with the Rule of Law Society, a group with no history of scientific publications.
Dr. Yan, however, has co-authored two Covid-19 papers published in top-tier journals: “Pathogenesis and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in golden hamsters” in Nature and “Viral dynamics in mild and severe cases of COVID-19” in The Lancet. Her solid background in corona-virology piqued my interest in what her preprint has to say.
