Prestige Biotech, a Chinese medical company, operated an illegal laboratory in California where they bioengineered and infected almost 1,000 mice with diseases including HIV, E. Coli, malaria, and Covid-19.
The undercover lab was discovered in a warehouse in Reedley, Calif., when a garden hose was found to be illegally attached to the building. “There was a special room that was built housing about 1000 white lab mice,” a city manager, Nicole Zieba, told one local news outlet. “This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” she added. According to the official, at least 200 mice were found dead. The remainder were euthanized by the county.
Prestige Biotech was the largest creditor of the now defunct med-tech company Universal Meditech and took control of it following bankruptcy. The Chinese-run company did not have a license to operate in California.
Wang Zhaolin, a spokesman for Prestige Biotech, told the San Joaquin Valley Sun that the mice “were genetically engineered to catch and carry the Covid-19 virus,” the newspaper reported. Court documents further showed that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conducted tests on the more than 800 chemicals found at the site and that over 20 infectious agents were found present, including Hepatitis B and C, streptococcus pneumonia, chlamydia, rubella, and Herpes 1 and 5.
“Certain rooms of the warehouse were found to contain several vessels of liquid and various apparatus,” one document reads. “Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material.”
“Here at the public health department, we operate our own lab, so we are very well versed in the legal requirements and how to maintain and control an infectious agent,” Fresno County Department of Public Health official Joe Prado said in a statement broadcast on television. “And there was just a complete absence of those controls in place at the warehouse.”
“I’ve been with the department for 30 years, and I don’t recall a similar situation,” Fresno public-health official David Luchini told another local newspaper.