“In the worst-case scenario, it’s possible that someone was in very poor health and spread it through the community,” Harper told Fox News as he patrolled outside the warehouse while the EPA team worked inside.
Local officials have continually pushed so that no one in or around Reedley, California has been exposed to the horrors unfolding there. Malaria, dengue, hepatitis, HIV and Ebola are just some of the infectious agents and parasites known to be present. all capable of infecting or killing untold numbers of Americans. However, no one has been criminally charged over the shocking discoveries made in what was once an abandoned warehouse.
This fact infuriated the people of Reedley.
OWNER OF CALIFORNIA BIOLAB HAS CLOSE TIES TO CHINESE GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY MILITARY: HOUSE REPORT
A member of the EPA’s hazardous materials team entered the Reedley, California, warehouse to remove 800 boxes of chemicals remaining inside the underground biolab. (Lee Ross)
“I sense that investigations take time and some of them take years depending on their complexity,” Nicole Zieba, Reedley’s city director, told Fox News. “Would I have liked to see accusations around infectious diseases?Would I have liked to have seen accusations around infectious diseases?Did you like to see accusations about what was going on here?Yes. “
Prosecutors have accused a guy connected to the biolab of promoting fraudulent COVID-19 and pregnancy tests and lying to federal agents. Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese national, has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed after federal prosecutors convinced a judge that Zhu, known by several other names, posed a flight risk.
A recent bipartisan congressional report led us to believe that Zhu had won gigantic bills from China and was in that country illegally after fleeing Canada just a decade ago after being convicted of fraud, adding theft to U. S. intellectual property, and that he was convicted. , along with other defendants, to pay $330 million in damages.
While it is possible federal prosecutors are looking to expand their case against Zhu, it does not appear that the mere possession of most of the agents reported in the warehouse is illegal. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office prosecuting Zhu told Fox News last year it would not confirm or deny a potential investigation into any possible criminal activity tied to the biolab or how the various agents were obtained or possibly transported into the country.
‘DISTURBING’ CALIFORNIA BIOLAB SHROUDED IN MYSTERY AS TIES TO CHINA EMERGE
Last summer, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, told reporters that his workplace was in the early stages of its investigation into Operation Reedley, raising the option that Zhu or others could be charged. of state crimes. On Wednesday in San Francisco, Bonta responded to Fox News’ inquiry asking for an update without providing much clarity.
“We are aware of that incident – continue to be – and we do not comment on pending or potential investigations,” Bonta said.
The prosecutors’ hesitant reaction reflects the likely lukewarm reaction of federal and state agencies that were implored to interfere early on through local interests that felt the risks presented through the biolab went beyond the boundaries of their city of 25,000 people.
FBI agents were called in just days after the lab’s discovery, but early last year they referred the investigation to the government in Reedley and Fresno County. Fox News has learned that once those federal agents decided the lab was unarmed, they largely backed off the case.
Fox News also learned that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entities were never involved in the case. Fox News did not get any official reaction from DHS when asked if its BioWatch program, its National Biomonitoring Integration Center, or its National Center for Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures (NBACC) were activated. The department’s website says the NBACC “is a first-of-its-kind facility committed to protecting the country against biological threats. “
Bioterrorism expert and retired Air Force Colonel Robert Kaldec said the clandestine lab should set off alarm bells in Washington and beyond, calling attention to the possibility that bad actors could plan a mass casualty attack by legally obtaining deadly biological agents.
“This represents a moment where the yellow and red lights are flashing for law enforcement and public fitness systems to figure out how they want to deal with this in the future,” Kaldec told Fox News.
Illegal Biological Lab Filled with Mice and Medical Waste Discovered in California
In its 40-page report on the Reedley lab released in November, the House Select Committee on China specifically drew attention to what it called the CDC’s “inadequate” response. Last spring, the agency’s microbiologists spent several days inside the Reedley lab and produced a report detailing the worrisome infectious agents believed to be inside the building. However, the congressional report says it’s “puzzling” that the CDC didn’t check the vials to make its decision.
“Despite the likelihood that the unlabeled or coded vials contained other unknown and harmful pathogens, CDC officials refused to take further investigative action,” the report said. He also claimed that CDC officials failed to take “meaningful action” when presented with evidence that Ebola, ranked as the point of greatest concern, is present.
READ THE REPORT OF THE HOUSE SELECTION COMMITTEE – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:
The CDC defended its moves in the Reedley case, but Kaldec, who questioned the House committee, told Fox News that the federal government’s overall reaction should be considered. “This demonstrated a significant gap in our wisdom about this type of laboratory. And frankly, the possibility, even if no harm is done or if there are not, so to speak, negative consequences, simply indicates that this type of laboratory may pose a long-term challenge or risk to our country.
Two California agencies were also willing to worry despite emergency calls for help.
Jesalyn Harper, code compliance manager for Reedley, California, center, talks about the biolab and her discovery in December 2022 of a grass hose protruding from the back of the building that raised suspicions that in its something illegal was happening inside. (Lee Ross)
For several years before moving to Reedley, the biolab operated outright in the nearby city of Fresno, but city workers had suspicions about the true nature of the company doing business as Universal Meditech, Inc. These considerations were raised in October 2022, when it has become transparent that a move is imminent.
A Fresno official reached out to the California EPA and the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for emergency assistance. After several days of inaction, the agencies said they wouldn’t worry and referred the matter to the local fitness agency.
“I’m glad this doesn’t add to our workload,” a senior environmental scientist at DTSC wrote in an email after reading the reference. “But I’m not sure what’s going to happen to him. “
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Within weeks, the lab’s operators secretly moved all of their operations to Reedley, without permits, regulations, or permits, despite the presence of fatal pathogens at the site.
“I refuse to settle for the concept that nothing else is happening at these facilities, that there’s nothing else that a federal or state company can do,” Zieba told Fox News. “This chain has been traumatized. I think this country “has been traumatized. And to see a total government formula turn around and say, well, the construction is now blank, we can walk away and move on. No, no, no. We have to keep raising the flag. “
Fox News’ Michael Lundin contributed to this report.
William La Jeunesse joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in March 1998 and is currently a senior correspondent.