House panel launches investigation into illegal Chinese lab in California

House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup announced an investigation into whether an unlicensed lab in Reedley, California, owned by Prestige Biotech, a Chinese company, posed a threat to public health for allegedly conducting dangerous research related to COVID-19.

In March 2023, city and state officials, in conjunction with the FBI, executed a search warrant on the property, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inspected the lab for deadly viruses and infectious agents.

Mr. Wenstrup, Ohio Republican, and the committee point to mounting intelligence and evidence that supports that COVID-19 likely originated at a lab in Wuhan, China. The lawmakers see that investigating Prestige Biotech’s illegal bio lab on U.S. soil is crucial to protecting America’s national security and preventing future outbreaks and pandemics.

“On March 16, 2023, various city and bureau officials executed a search warrant and found ’several hundred mice that … have been genetically modified to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.’ The mice were being kept in dangerous and unsafe conditions,” Mr. Wenstrup wrote in a letter to the FBI. “The city stated, ’The tenant has been unable to provide evidence of any state or federal licenses or certifications that would permit the breeding and experimentation being conducted on these mice.’” 

In a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Wenstrup wrote, “Between May 2 and 4, 2023, staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins inspected the lab and determined at least 20 potentially infectious agents were stored under inadequate conditions.”

According to documents, Mr. Wenstrup noted, a purported representative of Prestige provided false statements and claimed there were no infectious agents stored at the laboratory.

Mr. Wenstrup asked the FBI and HHS for all documents and communications between or among employees or contractors regarding Prestige Biotech Inc. or Universal Meditech Inc.

Additionally, he asked for all documents and communications between or among the bureau and other federal, state or local government entities.

Also this month, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, and other California lawmakers, including Reps. Kevin Kiley, a Republican, and Jim Costa, a Democrat, called for a federal response to illegal labs.

The lab, according to reports, was discovered last December after the only full-time code enforcement officer, Jesalyn Harper of Reedley in California’s Central Valley, responded to a complaint about vehicles parked in the loading dock of a cold-storage warehouse when she noticed a foul smell and saw a garden hose snaking into the old building.

Upon further investigation, Ms. Harper encountered a woman in a lab coat and two others wearing plastic gloves and blue surgical masks packing pregnancy tests for shipping. They told her they were from China.

Ms. Harper saw in the lab dozens of refrigerators and freezers, vials of blood, jars of urine and about 1,000 white lab mice in crowded containers.

She contacted Fresno County health officials, then the FBI.

This incident set off a series of investigations by federal, state and local authorities who found no criminal activity at the medical lab owned by Prestige Biotech, a company registered in Las Vegas, and no evidence of a threat to public health or national security.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was no sign that the lab illegally possessed the materials or had agents or toxins that could be used as bioweapons.

“CDC has taken no further action in this matter,” the agency said in an email to The Associated Press, referring further questions to county and state officials.

The lab was shut down one month ago by the Fresno County Department of Public Health out of safety concerns.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.