Li-Meng Yan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1983 or 1984 (age 41–42)[1] |
| Alma mater | Central South University (Master of Medicine 医学硕士学位) Southern Medical University (Doctor of Medicine 医学博士学位 inophthalmology) University of Hong Kong (Postdoctoral Fellow)[2] |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Post-doctoral researcher |
| Field | Medicine |
| Institutions | University of Hong Kong School of Public Health State Key Laboratory of Virology,Wuhan Institute of Virology,Chinese Academy of Sciences University of Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Sub-specialties | Immunology |
| Research | Influenza vaccine |
Li-Meng Yan orYan Limeng (simplified Chinese:闫丽梦;traditional Chinese:閆麗夢) is a Chinesevirologist,[3] known for her publications and interviews alleging thatSARS-CoV-2 was made in a Chinese governmentlaboratory. Her publications have been considered flawed by the wider scientific community.[4][5][6][7]
In April 2020, she fled to the United States. She co-authored severalpreprint research papers[a] claiming that SARS-CoV-2 was "produced in a laboratory."[9][10][11] According to scientific reviewers from theJohns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Yan's paper offered "contradictory and inaccurate information that does not support their argument,"[4] while reviewers fromRapid Reviews: COVID-19 criticised her preprints as not demonstrating "sufficient scientific evidence to support [their] claims."[5]
Yan is a native ofQingdao, Shandong, China.[12]
She received her Master of Medicine医学硕士学位 from Xiangya Medical College ofCentral South University in China.[2][when?] In 2014, she completed a Doctor of Medicine博士学位 inophthalmology fromSouthern Medical University in Guangzhou.[2][13][14] After this, she was a postdoctoral fellow at theUniversity of Hong Kong (HKU) until 2020.[6][15]
Before theCOVID-19 pandemic, Yan had served as a co-author on an article onuniversal influenza vaccines.[16]
Between September 2020 and March 2021, 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.[9] Her preprints (which did not undergo a scientificpeer review process) were posted to theZenodo platform, anopen-access repository where anyone can post their research.[17]
Yan stated that evidence of genetic engineering was censored in scientific journals, allegedly as part of a conspiracy to suppress information on the topic.[9][18] However, other scientists disputed the validity of the papers, pointing to poor methods, undisclosed funding from politically-motivated sources, the use of pseudonyms for the papers' co-authors, and the papers having never been submitted to a journal for review.[19][20][7][4] The papers were described by virologists as "non-scientific,"[21] "junk science," and written to spread "political propaganda."[20]
Reviewers for MITRapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19), which seeks out preprint papers and reviews them in an attempt to reduce the spread of false or misleading scientific news,[22] analyzed Yan's study and issued the following statement:
Given the far-reaching implications of the "Yan Report," RR:C19 sought out peer reviews from world-renowned experts in virology,molecular biology,structural biology,computational biology, vaccine development, and medicine. Collectively, reviewers have debunked the authors' claims that: (1) bat coronavirusesZC45 or ZXC21 were used as a background strain to engineer SARS-CoV-2, (2) the presence of restriction sites flanking theRBD suggest prior screening for a virus targeting the humanACE2 receptor, and (3) thefurin-like cleavage site is unnatural and provides evidence of engineering. In all three cases, the reviewers provide counter-arguments based on peer-reviewed literature and long-established foundational knowledge that directly refute the claims put forth by Yanet al. There was a general consensus that the study's claims were better explained by potential political motivations rather than scientific integrity. The peer reviewers arrived at these common opinions independently, further strengthening the credibility of the peer reviews.[5]
Yan's preprint was promoted by the Rule of Law Society,[23] a political organisation affiliated withSteve Bannon, former Trump strategist, andGuo Wengui, an expatriate Chinese billionaire, in November 2020.[7][24] The organisation's stated intent was to investigate "Chinese corruption and financially support victims of the regime."[17][18][25] The Rule of Law Society had not previously published scientific or medical research.[17] Yan previously appeared on Bannon's "War Room" podcast.[19][17] The lack of financial disclosure in 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".[5]
In November 2020,The New York Times reported that 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.[26] TheTimes article pointed out that Guo and Bannon arranged for 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 asLou Dobbs andTucker Carlson.[26] During a 2025 interview Bannon attributed the success of messaging on the pandemic to her saying, "The whole arc of the story and the counternarrative that we put out about Covid, a lot of it was because of Dr. Yan."[27]
In an 80-minute show in January 2020, YouTube host Wang Dinggang, also known as "Lu De", said he heard from an unnamed whistleblower who told him China was not being transparent about the outbreak in Wuhan.[26] Wang described his source, who was later revealed to be Yan, as "the world's absolute top coronavirus expert."[26] Although Yan worked at one of the world's top virology labs, she was fairly new to the field of virology and had not studied coronaviruses before the COVID-19 pandemic.[26]
Between July and August, Yan was interviewed byFox News,Newsmax TV,[28] and theDaily Mail.[1] Yan claimed in interviews that she became aware of person-to-persontransmission 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.[20]
She stated that theChinese government and theWorld Health Organization (WHO) 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.[12][29]
An official statement issued by HKU on 11 July 2020 confirmed that Yan was formerly a post-doctoral researcher at the institution,[30] but disputed the accuracy of other elements of her account, adding that "Dr. 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.[7][31]
Since July 2020 Dr. Yan's family say that they have not spoken to her. In 2021 Yan's husband, Dr. Ranawaka Perera aSri Lankan national, accepted a post at theUniversity of Pennsylvania so that he could remain in the United States to seek to reconnect with her. A 2025 article inThe New York Times described efforts by Yan's husband and parents to contact and reconcile with her as well as Yan's continued assertions in interviews that this behavior on the part of her family is coerced by the government of China.[27]
Yan's study was published by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation, two New York City-based groups Bannon helped create alongside Guo Wengui, a Chinese dissident and billionaire [...].
Authority control databases: Academics |
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