Two California-based legislators are calling for an investigation into a secret Chinese-owned biolab discovered in Reedley, California, and how the company that owned it was approved for government loans and tax credits amounting to more than $500,000.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), who both represent congressional districts in California’s Central Valley, wrote a letter to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee asking for a probe into how and why Universal Meditech Inc., was granted two Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans of $74,912 each in April 2020 and February 2021.
Universal Meditech, Inc. was also awarded a $360,000 tax credit (pdf) in 2018 under California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CalCompetes GO-Biz program, although the company failed to meet guidelines and never actually received those funds.
The black market lab at 850 I St. was discovered last December when Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer for the City of Reedley fire department, noticed a green garden hose protruding from the back of a warehouse. She told The Epoch Times she inspected the building after receiving an anonymous complaint about a possible business operating in the warehouse which was believed to be vacant at the time.
The secret lab was later found to contain thousands of vials of bacterial and viral agents, including coronavirus. chlamydia, E. coli, streptococcus pneumonia, HIV, hepatitis, herpes, rubella, and malaria, raising grave concerns about biosecurity.
The warehouse space, rented by Prestige Biotech, Inc., housed nearly 1,000 lab mice, 200 of them found dead. The rest of the mice—except for 10 samples stored in a refrigerated facility—were euthanized and incinerated.
