Legal Insurrection readers may recall my report on a warehouse in Fresno County, California, that was the site of a massive remediation project and investigation after it was discovered to be an illegal, unlicensed laboratory full of lab mice, infectious agent samples, medical waste, and hazardous materials.
The owners, who appeared connected to China, claimed all the materials were for testing and diagnostic kit production. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned about the lab’s pregnancy test kits.
Thousands of medical tests tied to an illegal Reedley lab are now part of a new warning from the FDA.The products were manufactured by Universal Meditech, Incorporated.They include pregnancy and ovulation tests – plus strips to test for alcohol in breast milk.The FDA says since the company stopped operations, there are concerns the tests may not be safe and effective.Dr. Amy Autry with UCSF Fresno says having accurate pregnancy tests is important for expecting mothers.”I have to say this is a horrible situation. But in general, I think being able to have patients feel empowered to find out about their own health conditions in over-the-counter medical tests is just a great advance in medical care,” explained Dr. Autry.
If you are concerned or potentially impacted, check HERE for a complete list of product names.
Meanwhile, the mainstream press is downplaying public fears about the 20 infectious agents found in the illegal laboratory, which clearly had owners linked with China.
The discovery last December launched investigations by federal, state and local authorities who found no criminal activity at the medical lab owned by Prestige Biotech Inc., a company registered in Las Vegas, and no evidence of a threat to public health or national security. Nonetheless, it was just the beginning of a case that this summer fueled fears, rumors and conspiracy theories online about China purportedly trying to engineer biological weapons in rural America….[O]n July 25, the Mid Valley Times, a local online news outlet, published a story about the lab that quoted court documents saying a representative of Prestige Biotech, which makes pregnancy and coronavirus tests sold online, told officials in March that the mice had been genetically modified to catch and carry the virus that causes COVID-19.That was likely a miscommunication by Prestige Biotech representative Wang Zhaolin, whose English is not perfect, [Jesalyn Harper, code enforcement officer for Reedley] said.
The race-base victimization explanations have begun, as exemplified by the AP article reviewing the situation in Reedley:
Lok Siu, a professor of Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said the fears being fanned online reflect anti-Chinese sentiments that have existed in the United States for centuries and were heightened during the pandemic.Siu said some people wrongfully assume all ethnic Chinese or Chinese-owned businesses have ties to the Chinese state. “They’re not given the ability to act as responsible or irresponsible individuals,” she added.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy joined other California politicians in sounding alarms about the ties between China and the lab, noting that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration supplied funds for the operation.
The speaker also alleged that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration provided the lab with state funding. “Now we’re finding out that the governor of California provided them with $360,000 in this process,” he said. A spokesperson from the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) told The Bee in an email that Universal Meditech, Inc., the predecessor of Prestige Biotech, received a $360,000 tax credit through the office’s California Competes program in April 2019, but the credit was ultimately revoked.“(Universal Meditech, Inc.) did not achieve any of its milestones and was not approved to claim any of the tax credits. GO-Biz recaptured the entire credit and voided the Agreement with UMI,” the spokesperson said. The office also said that Prestige Biotech never received any California Competes funding and that it was “never a party” to the agreement.
Newsom’s connection to this laboratory might make an interesting discussion point should he actually begin a presidential campaign.
McCarthy indicates he is going to ask the FBI to investigate the laboratory. That would be a nice change of pace for our federal investigators rather than focus on Catholics and MAGA supporters.
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