Chinese virologist Yan Li-Meng has published her report claiming that the novel Coronavirus is a man-made virus and China intentionally let the virus spread around the world. But Twitter has suspended her social media account after she made claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its origin.
Yan, who had under 60,000 followers on Twitter, published a pre-print report this week. The scientific report in question which includes three more names of her colleagues--Shu Kang, Jie Guan, and Shanchang Hu--contained a series of unsubstantiated claims about the source of the virus which killed over 935,000 people.
The Great Revelation
As reported, the Chinese virologist Yan-- who was employed as a researcher at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health when the pandemic began--and her colleagues appear affiliated with the Rule of Law Society, a group founded by Steve Bannon, the former advisor to the US President Donald Trump.
Yan appeared on the nightly series 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' on Tuesday, September 15 and said that SARS-CoV-2 is a "man-made virus" and it is "not from nature"—this comment sounds similar to what Trump and the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has been claiming so far.
During the Fox News show, Yan said that the virus was created in China and "I have evidence to show why they can do it, what they have done, how [they did it]." She claimed that the scientific community also "keeps silent... works together with the Chinese Communist Party. They don't want people to know his truth. [And] that is why I get suspended."
As per Yan, she was suppressed and now she is the target that CCP wants to be "disappeared." However, Andrew Preston, who is an expert in microbial pathogenesis at the U.K.'s University of Bath said, "[The] report cannot be given any credibility in its current form." Here is the scientific paper, published by Yan.
Twitter Suspension
Twitter has not yet commented on the suspension of Yan's social media handle. As during the pandemic false information related to COVID-19 started to appear on social media platforms, Twitter, in May, introduced new labels and warnings messages designed to show "context and information" on tweets which include disputed Coronavirus claims.
"We may use... labels and warning messages to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm associated with a tweet are less severe but where people may still be confused or misled by the content," said Twitter.
But the suspension of Yan's account goes one step further than a warning label or flag, and it remains unclear whether there was a specific tweet that violated policy.
