Globe Interviews Reedley Code Enforcement Officer in Mysterious Chinese COVID Lab Case

Why does California keep tripping up against China whenever there is a sketchy COVID issue?

We may not have the answer yet, but at least we are peeling back the layers of the mysterious Chinese COVID lab in Reedley, CA which code enforcement officers discovered.

The Globe spoke with Reedley Code Enforcement Officer Jesalyn Harper, and it was fruitful.

The original lab was in Fresno and was being operated by Universal Meditech, Inc., which received a business license from the State of California March 20, 2019 – exactly one year to the day before Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of Emergency Order locking down the entire state over the COVID-19 virus.

On August 26, 2020, there was an electrical fire in the Universal Meditech, Inc., Fresno warehouse facility on Fortune Avenue and Northpoint Drive, ABC30 reported.

Universal Meditech operated a lab inside the warehouse, but because of the Fire and Water sprinkler damage, more recently learned they were about to be evicted, and were facing bankruptcy. That is when Prestige Biotech ostensibly took over and hastily moved everything in October 2022 to the Reedley warehouse for storage, sublet from a cabinet and countertop business called Alliance. There was a recycling business on the property as well.

I asked who was in charge of the move from the Fresno warehouse to the Reedley warehouse. Officer Harper said it was difficult to determine that with several people identifying as associated with Prestige Biotech, but only as friends and doing a favor for the owner.

Ms. Harper said she received the abatement warrant, which covers all of the abandoned items in the warehouse on I Street. She said the record owner of the Property is AY-NC-LP, and the official tenant of the Property is Prestige Biotech, Inc. The Property consists of a 1.73-acre parcel lot with an industrial warehouse.

As the MidValley Times reported last week, the building has been illegally operated since October 2022 by Wang Zhaolin of Prestige Biotech, and the lab was used to produce COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests. The early report said the mice were genetically engineered to catch and carry COVID-19 – for what purpose is unsettling.

“From May 2 through May 4, the CDC’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins inspected 850 I Street. Court documents confirm the CDC found potentially infectious agents at the location. These included both bacterial and viral agents, including: chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5 and rubella. The CDC also found samples of malaria.”

Harper said the Property was being used to store various unknown chemicals, so the City of Reedley involved the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (“DTSC”), the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”), and the Fresno County Department of Public Health in its investigation of the Property.

Where the story gets sticky is when Officer Harper made numerous attempts to contact the owner of Prestige Biotech, Inc.

The owner, Xiuqin Yao, told Harper in an email that she lives in China and could only communicate by email. “We tried to make telephone communications with her,” Harper said, because while most of the property was components – machines, furniture, freezers, etc. – there were nearly 1,000 live mice which needed daily care. “And then she brought in a consultant, but we were still unable to establish whether Prestige Biolabs or Universal Meditech was the owner of the mice.”

“We’ve been through three different representatives of the company – they quit and a new person arrives, and we start all over.” She said not a single person represented as operating the business. “Several came forward, and then some claimed they were friends of the owner.”

“That is why we ended up moving forward with abatement.” She said it was apparent when they went inside of the warehouse, “they had packed and moved in a hurry – it was haphazard,” according to Officer Harper. And the live mice were in the abandoned warehouse living in inhumane conditions according to the Veterinarian Reedley code enforcement hired to assess them. The mice were eventually euthanized.

Harper said nothing was properly labeled, nor was it transferred from the old warehouse properly – i.e. they moved without the requisite permits. Officer Harper learned that typically to move chemicals and biologicals requires a permit from the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as county environmental health permits.

I asked if what kind of charges – criminal or civil – they were looking at for Prestige Biotech and/or Universal Meditech, when Officer Harper said she just learned of an interesting loophole – privately funded Research and Development labs aren’t required to register with the government. If they were operating under federal or state grants, they would have been required to obtain all kinds of permits.

Someone affiliated with Universal Meditech, Inc., and/or Prestige Biotech, Inc., either discovered the legal loophole, or someone in the state assisted them with the legalities. “This is unprecedented,” Officer Harper said. “We’ve never had a biological lab in the United States busted before.”

“They did their homework to figure out how to move from Fresno without licenses,” she added.

And, apparently mice are also a loophole. “They are the only animal unprotected under the USDA – they are not subject to regulations,” Officer Harper said. “Rats are regulated, but mice are not.”

At this point, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has bowed out and the Federal EPA is taking the lead on the chemicals in the abandoned lab.

Officer Harper said the California Department of Public Health jumped in and got the biological materials addressed. The medical devices have to be destroyed she said, if the owner is not willing to cooperate.

The Globe will have more reports on the Mysterious Chinese COVID lab in Reedley.

Here is the Declaration of Jesalyn Harper, Reedley Code Enforcement, in Application for Abatement Warrant. Be sure to scroll through the document to the attached exhibits.