‘If there are other labs that are like this in the United States, we need to find them quickly,’ says a Fresno official.
REEDLEY, Calif.—It was as simple as flipping a switch, but doing so could have catastrophic consequences.
Jesalyn Harper, a City of Reedley code enforcement officer, had to determine whether to turn off the power to a secret Chinese biolab in California in order to prevent a fire that inspectors had said was a risk.
But with the power off, the freezers’ contents would thaw, with potentially dangerous consequences. The biolab was full of thousands of vials of possible infectious pathogens.
She called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for advice.
“It was a very short-lived and frustrating phone call that ended with them hanging up,” said Ms. Harper.
She left the power on.
That was in March 2023, months after Ms. Harper had first discovered the biolab in December 2022 and alerted authorities.
Ms. Harper found inside what was supposed to be an unoccupied warehouse, thousands of vials of potentially infectious agents, including ones labeled as coronavirus, chlamydia, E. coli, streptococcus pneumonia, HIV, hepatitis, herpes, rubella, and malaria. A freezer was labeled “Ebola” and about 1,000 lab mice were kept for experimentation.
But there was no single authority that could deal with all of the pathogens, chemicals, and biological hazards and the response became drawn out.
It wasn’t until local officials contacted their congress member, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), asking him to intervene at the federal level, that the CDC responded to California state government and local official requests, according to a congressional report from the Select Committee on the CCP that was published in November 2023.
In early May 2023, the CDC spent two days inspecting the biolab, along with several other agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Fresno County Public Health, and the California Department of Public Health.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) told The Epoch Times he is trying to find out from the CDC why the agency initially “looked the other way” as local officials tried to get their attention.
By Steve Ispas and Lear Zhou
