U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is vowing to shine a congressional spotlight on a Chinese-linked bio lab in California. State officials discovered it operating illegally, and court documents reveal that lab mice found within were “genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.”
Located in Reedley, it was operated by a company called Prestige BioTech. The city fire department determined that the lab was a “hazard to the community” and a possible source of explosions and other health threats. Thousands of gallons of biological fluids and samples of pathogens such as HIV, malaria, SARS, and E. coli — more than 20 infectious agents total — lined walls throughout the massive building, as discovered by the Fresno County Department of Public Health.
McCarthy visited his home district last week, and announced:
Here is a lab that is studying, doing things that they did not have jurisdiction or policy or rights to. But if it wasn’t for code enforcement or a fire, we would have never known about it.… They were doing research that wasn’t allowed. My concern is to get to the bottom of what happened here, but also look at where is it happening in other parts of the country as well. But I’m going to take this back to the Select Committee on China in dealing with it as well, and working with the FBI.
Health Department director David Luchini told local news outlet Mid-Valley Times that in his 30 years’ experience, he had never seen anything like the medical violations his department uncovered. He said that “one room of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 [tests] and pregnancy tests. In other rooms, investigators found blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples. They also found thousands of vials that contained unlabeled fluids.”
The worst find was more than 900 lab mice housed in what court documents describe as inhumane conditions. Some were already dead, and the rest were in distress. Prestige BioTech representative Wang Zhaolin told investigators that the mice were genetically engineered to spread Covid-19.
Additionally, investigators found that the lab did not use a licensed medical-waste hauler. So from October of last year until this March when inspectors shut it down, Prestige BioTech disposed of medical wastes illegally.
The man identified in court documents as Prestige’s president, Xiuquin Yao, says that the company was developing diagnostic test kits. What makes this news disturbing is the fact that Prestige is successor to the now-bankrupt Universal Meditech, Inc., which received California tax credits in April of 2019 in the amount of $360,000.
After its bankruptcy, Universal issued a recall on more than 56,000 of its Covid rapid test kits because they lacked U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluation or approval. However, when Universal filed for bankruptcy, Prestige was its largest creditor and moved Universal’s assets from Fresno to Reedley. A short time beforehand, fire had broken out at the Fresno location due to hazardous materials housed there, according to GVwire.com.
However, NBC News reports that officials have been unable to obtain “any California-based address for either company,” and court documents confirmed that “the other addresses provided for identified authorized agents were either empty offices or addresses in China that could not be verified.”
Business filings reveal that both companies’ executives “appear to share the same names and addresses with one of the lab’s Chinese pharmaceutical suppliers,” according to the Daily Caller.
However, none of the company representatives contacted would confirm ownership of the biologics contained in the Reedley lab. Prestige BioTech is registered in Nevada, but not licensed for business in California.
Is this lab just the tip of the iceberg? Brandon Weichert, author of the book Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, told the Daily Caller: “I suspect there could be dozens — maybe even hundreds — of these labs that we don’t even know about.”
Indeed, YourCentralValley.com reported last week that Prestige applied earlier this year for office and warehouse space in Fresno. Writing for the Washington Examiner, Zachary Faria points out this location “would put the Chinese-linked bio lab and its infectious agents and bioengineered COVID mice right next to Fresno Yosemite International Airport, which is also home to the Fresno Air National Guard Base.”
