Cleanup at suspicious California biolab with ties to China continues

 Behind a makeshift green fence under the cover of dense fog, a small team of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hazmat contractors moved quickly on Wednesday and eventually pulled out 800 containers filled with chemicals left in an underground biolab turned warehouse. Suspicious relations with China.

It's been more than a year since a squalid building secretly filled with blood samples, genetically altered mice, and potentially deadly infectious agents was uncovered by newly appointed code enforcement officer Jessalyn Harper.

"Worst-case scenario, someone could get really sick, and they could spread it throughout the community," Harper told Fox News while on patrol outside the warehouse while EPA crews were working inside.

Authorities have repeatedly stressed that no one in Reedley, California, or the surrounding area suffered the horrors inside. Malaria, dengue fever, hepatitis, HIV and Ebola are just some of the infection agents and parasites that were profiled there, all capable of infecting or killing countless Americans. However, no one has been criminally charged over the shocking discoveries inside an abandoned warehouse.

"I understand that investigations take time and some of them take years depending on the complexity," Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba told Fox News. "Would I like to see some charges around infectious diseases? Yes. Would I like to see some charges around what was actually happening here? Yes."

Prosecutors charged a man associated with a biolab with selling fake COVID-19 and pregnancy tests and lying to federal agents. Jia Bei Zhu, a Chinese citizen, pleaded not guilty and remains behind bars after federal prosecutors convinced a judge that Zhu, known by several other names, was a flight risk.

A recent bipartisan congressional report revealed that Zhu received significant financial payments from China and was doing so illegally after fleeing to Canada after being convicted of fraud, including theft of US intellectual property, nearly a decade ago. was in the country, and along with fellow defendants he was ordered to pay $330 million. In loss.

While it's possible that federal prosecutors are looking to expand their case against Zhu, it doesn't seem likely that most of the agents' reported possession of the warehouse is illegal. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Zhu, told Fox News last year that it would not confirm any potential criminal activity involving the biolab or a possible investigation into how the various agents were obtained or possibly delivered to the country. Or will not refute.

Last summer, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, told reporters that his office was in the early stages of investigating the Reedley operation, raising the possibility that Zhu or others could be charged with state crimes. On Wednesday, in San Francisco, Bonta responded to a Fox News question asking for an update without providing further clarity.

Bonta said, "We are aware of that incident – and are continuing to do so – and we do not comment on pending or potential investigations."

The halting response of prosecutors reflects a seemingly slow response on the part of various federal and state agencies, who were initially prompted to intervene by local interests who felt that the threat presented by the biolab was too great for their town of 25,000 people. Were beyond the limits.

FBI agents were called within days of discovering the lab, but early last year, they turned the investigation over to Reedley and Fresno County authorities. Fox News has learned that once those federal agents determined that the lab was not, in fact, armed, they largely withdrew from the case.

Fox News has also learned that various entities within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were never involved in the matter. When Fox News asked whether its BioWatch program, the National Biosurveillance Integration Center, or its National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) were active, it received no official response from DHS. The department's website says the NBACC is "a unique facility dedicated to defending the nation against biological threats."

Bioterrorism expert and retired Air Force Colonel Robert Kaldek said the secret lab should set off alarm bells in Washington and beyond, drawing attention to the possibility that bad actors could carry out mass-casualty attacks by legally obtaining lethal biological agents. Can plan.

"This presents a moment of flashing yellow and red lights for both law enforcement and public health systems to figure out how they have to manage this going forward," Kaldek told Fox News.

In its 40-page report on the Reedley Lab released in November, the House Select Committee on China took particular note of CDC's "inadequate" response. Last spring, microbiologists from the agency spent several days inside the Reedley Lab and prepared a report detailing the infectious agents allegedly harboring inside the building. However, the congressional report says it is "surprising" that the CDC failed to actually test the vials to make its determination.

"Despite the possibility that the unlabeled or coded vials contained additional unknown and dangerous pathogens, CDC officials declined to take any further investigative steps," the report said. It also claimed that CDC officials failed to take "meaningful action" when presented with evidence that Ebola, which is classified at the highest level of concern, may exist.

The CDC defended its actions in the Reedley case, but Caldack, who advises the House committee, told Fox News that attention should be paid to the federal government's overall response. "It demonstrated a significant gap in our awareness of these types of laboratories. And frankly, the possibility, even if no one was hurt or there were no negative consequences, if you like, that it just recognizes that "That this type of laboratory could represent a future challenge or threat to our country."

Despite emergency appeals for help, some California agencies were also eager to avoid getting involved.

For several years before relocating to Reedley, BioLab had been operating openly in nearby Fresno, but city employees there were managed by Universal Meditech, Inc. There were doubts about the real nature of the enterprise running under the name of. Those concerns were heightened in October 2022. When it became clear that a move was imminent.

A Fresno official contacted the California EPA and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) for emergency assistance. After several days of inaction, each agency said they would not get involved and referred back to the local health agency.

"Pleased that this will not be added to our workload," a senior DTSC environmental scientist wrote in an email to colleagues after learning of the referral. "[B]I'm not quite sure what will happen with it."

Within a matter of weeks, the lab operators were able to secretly move their entire operation to Reedley – without any permits, regulation, or permission, despite the deadly pathogens at the site.

"I refuse to accept the idea that there was nothing else going on at this facility, that no federal or state agency could have done anything else," Ziba told Fox News. "This community was in shock. I think this country was in shock. And the whole government system just turns its back and says, OK, the building is clean, now we can walk away and move on to the next thing." No, no, no. We have to keep raising the flag.