A Chinese virologist who sounded the alarm in early 2020 about where the coronavirus came from said Monday the U.S. has reached a "milestone achievement" after a classified intelligence report from the Energy Department reportedly found the virus most likely originated in a Chinese lab.
Dr. Li Meng Yan told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in September 2020 that the Chinese government intentionally manufactured and released the COVID-19 virus, leading to nationwide shutdowns and deaths.
Host Tucker Carlson asked Yan on Monday if she still believes the virus was intentionally released nearly three years after the pandemic started.
"Of course, it was not an accident," she responded.
"Maybe for people who don't have this kind of biosafety lab 3 or 4 experience on coronavirus, maybe it's easy for them to accept the accident lab leak. However, I'm a scientist, working in [a] research lab using coronavirus. And I can tell you, based on the print protocol and also the other surveillance system, it would be impossible for the lab leak [to] accidentally happen in such [a] lab and cause the Wuhan outbreak and also the pandemic," Yan said.
"So definitely now we just reached the first step. It was from China's lab, and we need to pursue the truth of origin, and we need to keep going on."
Carlson suggested the Chinese government unleashed COVID to destroy Western economies and elevate their own position globally.
Yan said based on the evidence she has seen and the source she has spoken to, the virus was "intentionally brought out of this strict lab and released in the community."
"However, I don't think the outbreak in Wuhan was intentional. I would say it was because [the] CCP government and the military scientists underestimated the transmissibility," she added. "That's why finally it got out of control and the cost [was] a local outbreak. However, we should know that [the] CCP government intentionally let it go all over the world to kill millions of people all over the world later."
Yan was a respected doctor who specialized in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong School of Public Health before fleeing in April 2020 after she began looking into the growing number of cases coming out of mainland China that involved human-to-human transmission.
Residents wait in line for their routine COVID-19 test at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing, Dec. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
She said she reported her findings to her supervisor on Jan. 16, but that's when he allegedly told her "to keep silent, and be careful."
"As he warned me before, 'Don't touch the red line,'" Yan said referring to the government. "We will get in trouble, and we'll be disappeared."
