Chinese virologist, who fled Hong Kong, accuses Beijing of coronavirus cover-up

A Chinese virologist, who had fled Hong Kong, has claimed Beijing knew about the deadly novel coronavirus well before it claimed it did.

Dr Li-Meng Yan has specialised in virology and immunology at Hong Kong School of Public Health. She says she was one of the first scientists in the world to study the novel coronavirus.

In an interview to US-based Fox News, she, now in hiding, says she fears she can never go back to her home and lives with the hard truth that she’ll likely never see her friends or family there again. "But the risk is worth it," she adds.

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"The reason I came to the US is because I deliver the message of the truth of COVID," she told Fox News from an undisclosed location.

She added that if she tried to tell her story in China, she "will be disappeared and killed."

Yan was allegedly asked by her supervisor at the University/WHO reference lab, Dr Leo Poon, in 2019 to look into the odd cluster of SARS-like cases coming out of mainland China at the end of December 2019.

When she informed her boss of her knowledge of the cases and about human-to-human transmission well before China or the WHO admitted such spread was possible, she was told to keep quiet and continue working.

A few days later, on January 9, 2020, the WHO put out a statement: "According to Chinese authorities, the virus in question can cause severe illness in some patients and does not transmit readily between people... There is limited information to determine the overall risk of this reported cluster.”

She also claims the co-director of a WHO-affiliated lab, Professor Malik Peiris, knew but didn't do anything about it.

When Yan decided to speak out against China, she discovered her life was apparently in jeopardy, as well as that of those closest to her. She then begged her husband to go with her, and says while her spouse, a reputable scientist himself, had initially been supportive of her research, he suddenly had a change of heart.

Yan claims the Chinese government is now trying to tarnish her reputation, conduct cyber-attacks on her and intimidate her family in China.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump had accused China of covering up the Covid-19 pandemic and had even terminated the country’s WHO funding in May, saying it didn’t respond adequately to the pandemic.

The WHO and China have vehemently denied claims of a coronavirus cover-up.

The WHO has also denied that Yan, Poon or Peiris ever worked directly for the organisation.