Yan says she was one of the first scientists in the world to study the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, after Dr. Leo Poon, her supervisor at the Hong Kong University (a WHO reference lab), asked her to look into a cluster of SARS-like cases in Wuhan, in December 2019.[7] According to Fox, Yan maintained an extensive network of medical professionals from mainland China, one of whom told Yan about human-to-human transmission of the novel disease on December 31, 2019.[8]. According to Yan, she reported her findings about the virus multiple times to her superiors, including one on January 16, after which she says she was warned by her supervisor "to keep silent and be careful."[9]
In interviews with Fox News, Yan accused the Chinese government of knowing about the novel coronavirus before it publicly said that it did and said that lives could have been saved if they had not censored her work.[7][10] She also accused her supervisors for ignoring research that she was doing at the onset of the pandemic that she says could have also saved lives.[7][11] Feeling that she and her colleagues had an obligation to tell the world of their research[12] given their status as a World Health Organization reference laboratory, Yan fled for the United States on April 28 with what she said was her intention of delivering "the message of the truth of COVID," adding if she tried to tell her story in China, she said that she would be "disappeared and killed."[7][13] Yan's interviews and accusations were subsequently cited in other media outlets.[8][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]
In July 2020, a press release from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) denied her claim and stated that "HKU notes that the content of the said news report does not accord with the key facts as we understand them. Specifically, Dr Yan never conducted any research on human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus at HKU during December 2019 and January 2020, her central assertion
新冠肺炎爆发至今，已经造成全球1600多万人确诊，65.9万人染疫逝世，此外更严重冲击全球经济。且因最初案例出现在中国大陆武汉华南海鲜市场，起初被认定是该病毒起源地，但现在从中国大陆逃离的病毒学家阎丽梦出面，指出病毒起源其实是军方实验室。
阎丽梦日前接受网路自媒体《路德社》专访，表示自己会选择站出来，是因为自己当时发现不对，向上级反映後，世界卫生组织（WHO）的专家都无动於衷，且中国大陆政府非常强势。她看着武汉的民众持续暴露於病毒威胁中，从一个医师与科学家的角度，她认为这是很严重的公共卫生危机，才决定挺身而出。
▼中国大陆武汉华南海鲜市场，被认为是病毒起源地。（图／东森新闻）
阎丽梦指出当时，她已经分析出病毒来源是中国大陆的军方实验室，而被认为是发源地的海鲜市场「只是一个用来打幌子的地方」，但她也知道自己不可能向政府高层反映，否则可能就会「被消失」，因此阎丽梦向外寻求可靠的媒体，才能有效地将这些讯息传递出来。
▼阎丽梦（右）指出病毒起源是中国大陆的军方实验室。（图／YouTube频道「路德社」）
此外专访中，阎丽梦痛批中国大陆政府是个黑暗、邪恶、撒谎的政权，并表示希望能让更多人知道他们的真面目，「他们已经把魔爪伸向全世界，我们当然要团结全世界，一起来对抗」。
（封面图／东森新闻、YouTube频道「路德社」）