Scientists said claims about China creating the coronavirus were misleading. They went viral anyway.
Craig Timberg, The Washington Post
Feb. 12, 2021
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Dr. Li-Meng Yan s assertion that China created the coronavirus in a lab in Wuhan was quickly challenged by major scientific journals.Photo for The Washington Post by Jackie Molloy f
Scientists from Johns Hopkins, Columbia and other leading American universities moved with rare speed when a Chinese virologist, Li-Meng Yan, published an explosive paper in September claiming that China had created the deadly coronavirus in a research lab.
The paper, the American scientists concluded, was deeply flawed. And a new online journal from MIT Press - created specifically to vet claims related to covid-19 - reported Yan s claims were at times baseless and are not supported by the data just 10 days after she posted them.
Yan’s work, which was posted to the scientific research repository Zenodo without any review on Sept. 14, exploded on Twitter, YouTube and far-right websites with the help of such conservative influencers as Republican strategist Stephen K. Bannon.