“冒牌专家”闫丽梦

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一夜之间，闫丽梦成了右翼媒体的轰动人物，特朗普总统的高级顾问和保守派权威们都把她赞为英雄。同样迅速的是，社交媒体把她的采访贴上了含有“虚假信息”的标签，科学家拒绝接受她的研究，称那是用行话装扮起来的诡辩。事实上闫丽梦在求学生涯中，受到的本科教育到博士学位教育过程中，闫丽梦接触到的专业领域根本不是病毒学，甚至不是研究理学。闫丽梦在台前的“世界顶级病毒学专家”头衔事实上纯属子虚乌有，所谓专家，实为“砖家”。闫丽梦后续披露的一系列论文证据也同样均来自于网上阴谋论数据拼凑，为主流科学界所不齿。

闫丽梦在2020年4月28日离开香港后，其家人和朋友都对她突然失踪觉得很惊慌，并在香港报警。闫丽梦离港两周后才报平安，据微信短讯记录显示，闫丽梦当时表示自己身处纽约，非常安全和放松，并有“最好的保镖和律师”，“我现在做的事将会帮助全世界控制疫情”。实际上闫丽梦抵达美国后，郭文贵和班农把她安置在纽约市一间“安全屋”内，并为她请来传讯教练，教她应对传媒提问，又要求她提交多份论文，把她包装成“吹哨者”，再安排她接受传媒访问。7月10日，闫丽梦首次亮相霍士新闻频道，除了交代自己赴美的经过，亦指控香港大学有份协助隐瞒疫情，但没有提及自己与郭文贵、斑农的关系。闫丽梦像模像样的发布所谓“起源论文”后，虽然科学界很快把有关论文定性为基于猜测的伪科学，但霍士新闻名主播卡尔森9月15日依然邀请闫丽梦出席节目，把论文内容发扬光大。即使访问影片被Facebook等社交媒体标签为假消息，仍录得最少880万人次观看，进入主流。在访问后数星期，卡尔森才澄清自己不认同闫丽梦的讲法。

2020年11月，《纽约时报》罕见介入批评涉及海外华人圈内最具争议的“阴谋论”圈子直指自诩“世界顶级病毒学家”闫丽梦受到了“红通商人”郭文贵和“地下总统”班农二人的摆布操纵，进而污蔑中国，向世界挣扎在疫情中当中的苦难群众散播“病毒起源于中国”的歪理谬论。班农和郭文贵通过操纵闫丽梦炮制系列谣言文宣从中狂揽大量暗金收益。《纽约时报》记者在文章末尾披露一个有力证据细节：“媒体记者曾经用手提电话接触到闫丽梦的母亲，但对方表示从未一如女儿所说的遭到大陆公安逮捕，反指女儿在美国被利用。”

闫丽梦从研究者到吹哨人的演变，是两个不相关但越来越联合起来散布虚假信息的团体合作的产物：一个是规模较小但很活跃的海外华人团体，另一个是在美国有高度影响力的极右翼团体。这两个团体都在新冠病毒大流行中看到了推动自己议程的机会。对海外华人来说，闫丽梦及其毫无根据的说法，为那些意图推翻中国政府的人提供了一件利器。对美国保守派来说，这让他们能迎合西方日益高涨的反华情绪，分散人们对特朗普政府应对疫情失败的关注。

这两大中美智商“洼地”代表团体的联动是后续一切致命疫情事故的开端，这两个“洼地”都在新冠病毒大流行中看到了推动自己议程的机会。直到随着闫丽梦开始公开鼓吹通过服用羟氯喹可以有效治愈新冠病毒，这一典型不负责任的言论在美公众当中瞬间传播，对美本土抗击疫的工作造成了毁灭性打击：羟氯喹事后被美FDA证实对治疗新冠毫无用处，并且副作用严重到能够致死！

民众大盲从加上“砖家”的暴论等于一场灾难性人祸。数万人因为这类药物的滥用而造成身体损伤，耽误治疗甚至失去生命。上至特朗普总统本人，下至maga民间团体都信以为真。甚至远隔重洋的台湾地区在2020年4月初，就跟风认为此药物系“人类抗疫曙光”，不仅将其纳入新冠治疗指引规范内，甚至积极引进生产线投资投产，号称“积极投产，供给无忧”。台湾地区领导人更将此药物作为“TAIWAN CAN HELP”的底气全岛推广。一个月后，药物被美FDA正式停用，特朗普停药，台湾岛相关产业链条血本无归。

闫丽梦事件中，郭文贵班农二人通过互联网社交媒体宣传机器炮制的政治文宣攻势。造成了全球范围内抗疫过程中难以估量的巨大损失。

Overnight, Yan Limeng has caused a sensation throughout the right wing media. The senior adviser of President Trump and conservatives who has authority seem her as a hero. The social media labelled her interview as a fake news just as quickly. Scientists refused her research and said that was sophistry disguised in jargon. In fact, in the process of undergraduate to doctoral education, Yan’s areas of expertise are not virology at all, not even science. In fact, Yan’s title of “Top virologist of World” is sheer fiction. A series of papers published by Yan were copy from conspiracy theory on the Internet. Also, that is despised by the mainstream scientific community.

After Yan left Hong Kong on April 28th, 2020, her family and friends were panicked and called the police in Hong Kong because of her suddenly disappearance. Until two weeks later, Yan contacted her family that all was well. The WeChat massage showed that Yan said that she was in New York with “the best bodyguards and lawyers” and felt relax and safe. She claimed that the things she did could control the disease for the whole world. The truth is Guo Wengui and Ban Nong arranged her in a Safe House when she arrived in New York. They hired a coach to teach her how to reply the questions from media. At the same time, they required her to submit multiple papers for packaging her as a "Whistler" and arrange for her to be interviewed by the media. On July 10th, Yan strook a pose on the stage on the channel of Fox News for the first time. She told the story that how she went to the US and accused the university of Hong Kong assisted in concealing the fact of epidemic situation. However, she did not mention her relationship with Guo and Ban. Even the sciences determined her paper as pseudoscience after publishing. Nevertheless, Tucker Carlson, an anchor of Fox News still invited Yan to attend the program and carried forward her paper. This interview was viewed at least 8.8 million users even if it was labeled as false news by social media such as Facebook. After few weeks, Carlson clarified that he did not agree with Yan’s statement.

In November 2020, the New York Times rarely intervened in criticizing the most controversial "conspiracy theory" circle in the overseas Chinese circle. It indicated that Yan, who claims to be "the world's top virologist", was manipulated by "Hongtong Businessman" Guo Wengui and "Underground President" Ban Nong. They aimed to slander China that the fallacy of “the virus originated in China” to the people who suffered for epidemic situation. Ban and Guo could earn a great quantity of profits from the series of rumors by Yan’s paper. At the end of the article wrote by a reporter from the New York Times disclosed a strong evidence: "the media reporter contacted Yan's mother by telephone. Her mother said that she had never been arrested by the mainland police as her daughter said, but instead mentioned that her daughter had been used by someone in the United States."

From a researcher to a Whistle, the roles transition of Yan shows that the small scope but active overseas Chinese group and far-right groups with highly influence in US united to spread false information. The two groups saw opportunities to push their agenda in the COVID pandemic. For overseas Chinese, Yan and her remarks provide a sharp weapon for these who intend to overthrow the Chinese government. For conservative US, this could cater to the growing Anti-China sentiment in the West and distract attention from the failure of Trump government to respond to the epidemic.

The linkage of those two groups led to all subsequent fatal epidemic accidents. Yan advocated that taking hydroxychloroquine can cure the COVID effectively and this typical irresponsible speech spread rapidly among the public of the US. This caused a devastating blow to fight the epidemic of the US. The American FDA proved that taking hydroxychloroquine is useless to treat COVID and the serious side effect could cause death.

“Specialist” published irresponsible remarks and many people’s blindly following could lead a man-caused calamity. Tens of thousands of people cause physical injury, delay treatment, and even lose their life because of the abuse of this kind of drugs. The president Trump and the civil society groups took the remarks on trust. Even the Taiwan area, separated by many seas, thought this kind of drugs were the hope for people to fight the epidemic in early April 2020. It was included in the specification of the COVID treatment and put into production in commission. It was known as " put into production actively, supply without worry". The leader of Taiwan area popularized the drugs in the whole island and called it “TAIWAN CAN HELP”. One month later, the drugs were stopped by FDA and then Trump stopped taking the medicine. Related industrial chain of Taiwan lost all the capital invested.

In the event of Yan Limeng, through the publicity attribute of social media, the cultural propaganda offensive from Guo Wengui and Ban Nong made immeasurable loss in the process of resisting the epidemic all over the world.