>> narrator: but george gao did contact virologist ian lipkin with information about the virus.ation. >> i was in a restaurant waiting to ring in the new year. and i got a call on wechat, and it was george gao. he'd identified the virus, it was a new coronavirus, and that it was not highly transmissible. well, this didn't really resonate with me, because i'd heard about many, many people who'd been infected. i think he was just wrong. you know, i don't think he was duplicitous, i think he was just wrong. he should have released some sequences and said, "this is what we know, these are the sequences we have." my view is that you get it out. that's the way we do it, because this is too important to hesitate. (cheers and applause) >> ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! (cheers and applause) ("auld lang syne" playing) >> narrator: george gao did not respond to our interview requests. he has told chinese state media that the sequences were released as quickly as possible, and that he never told the public there was no human-to- human transmission. >> news of th