Deadly Pathogens Were Being Kept in Illegal US Lab, Test Animals Found to Have Disturbing Genetic Alteration
It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.
In the Fresno County, California city of Reedley, officials are saying that a building that was supposed to be abandoned was instead home to roughly a thousand bioengineered mice, human blood, and biohazardous chemicals.
Not only that, but KSEE-TV reports that, as per court documents, officials Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found “at least 20 potentially infectious viral, bacterial, and parasitic agents … including E. Coli, malaria, and even COVID.”
“This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba said.
This was an oft-echoed statement: “I’ve never seen this in my 26-year career with the County of Fresno,” said Joe Prado, assistant director for the the Fresno County Department of Public Health. Speaking to the Mid-Valley Times, again Prado: “Twenty-six years with the county of Fresno, and I have never come across this situation nor have I heard any of my counterparts deal with a situation like this.” Etc., etc.
The investigation began in March when Reedley code enforcement officers looked into a warehouse with a garden hose attached illegally.
“It was pretty clear right off the bat that something was going on we didn’t have a business license for,” Zieba said. “They didn’t have any city approvals; that building was supposed to be vacant.”
Officers left the property due to the lack of a warrant, but with the garden hose and a number of building code violations led to officers eventually putting “Unsafe to Occupy” signs around the property and issuing an order for the people who were occupying it to leave.
Initially, the Fresno County Department of Public Health was investigating the case — but in the end, the CDC, the FBI and numerous state agencies became involved.
What they found was genuinely shocking: According to court documents, the Mid-Valley Times reported, “investigators discovered that one room of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. In other rooms, investigators found blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples. They also found thousands of vials that contained unlabeled fluids. “
“That’s when we found the mice,” Zieba said.
Ah yes — a little bit under 1,000 mice, with 773 euthanized and 178 already dead.
The company that moved equipment into the warehouse was identified as a Nevada-based firm, Prestige Biotech Inc. Wang Zhaolin was the Prestige representative on the site; he told investigators that “these mice were genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus.”
The mice, investigators say, were housed under “inhumane” conditions.
However, an email exchange between Prado and David He, who was allegedly a representative for the company, went nowhere. The exchange, which began on May 31 and ended on June 13, Prado asked for documentation involving why the company was storing infectious agents, whether it was disposing medical waste via a licensed firm and how it would respond to orders from the city.
“They [Prestige] completely avoided the questions,” Prado said. “This individual [He] was either unaware or was intentionally trying to mislead us.”
So, just so we’re clear: There were nearly 1,000 mice who were genetically altered to catch the COVID-19 virus that were being housed in an ersatz laboratory in a warehouse and were being disposed of, along with bodily fluids and other biohazardous materials, via a waste firm whose documentation the people running the laboratory refused to burnish — which likely means they were unlicensed, as well.
And you wonder why people have questions about what the origins of COVID-19 were or how it transmitted and mutated.
Don’t get me wrong, an illegal warehouse factory in Fresno County has nothing on the Wuhan Institute of Virology and reports that it was doing work on bat coronaviruses in lower security BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories, instead of BSL-4 labs (the most secure). Nor does it have anything to do with the CDC being less-than-transparent about gain-of-function research it was allegedly funding at the WIV — and the fact that the sainted Dr. Anthony Fauci may have lied in front of Congress about it.
In this case, authorities are saying that the warehouse lab has been safely contained by officials.
“I think because of that swift action that was taken we had been able to maintain public safety this entire time,” Prado said.
“There are no more biologicals. There are no more mice, but they still will see us abating, 30 freezers and fridges, medical equipment, and all sorts of furniture in there,” Zieba said. “They’ll still see some activity, nothing hazardous at this point.”
However, the lab sounds a bit to the layman like a perfect petri dish for a mutation of SARS-CoV-2. That we escaped that fate is apparently due to the quick action of city, state and federal officials. There’s no knowing how many of these clandestine labs there are, either — or whether the next global panic could be brewing behind their walls.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
