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The leader of a House panel looking into the COVID-19 pandemic asked the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday to hand over records on an illegal Chinese lab that was reportedly conducting risky research in California.
House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for documents and communications about the lab, operated in secret in the tiny city of Reedley by the Chinese company Prestige Biotech.
Federal, state and local authorities raided the lab earlier this year and found hundreds of mice that had been genetically altered to carry COVID-19 and were “kept in dangerous or unsafe conditions,” according to court filings made in Fresno County.
Prestige Biotech President Xiuquin Yao was also unable to produce licenses or certifications that allowed for either breeding or experimenting on the mice. The lab was later shut down.
A subsequent search by agents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered the lab also improperly housed at least 20 infectious diseases, bacteria and viruses, including Chlamydia, E. coli, HIV 1 and 2, Malaria and SARS-CoV-2.
According to the court filings, another representative for Prestige Biotech, David He, had told the authorities there were no infectious materials being kept at the lab.
But the immediate supervisor, Wang Zhaloin, told investigators that the mice had been genetically engineered to catch and carry COVID-19, the filings show.
Reports of the raids surfaced in July and also showed the lab was located in a warehouse and kept more than 800 biological materials, 773 mice that were still alive and 178 mice that were found dead. One room in the warehouse was also producing pregnancy tests for COVID-19.
“We are committed to investigating the origin of COVID-19, but also assessing the federal government’s ability to keep America safe from biological threats,” Wenstrup wrote to Wray and Becerra.
The Republican subcommittee chairman asked for relevant documents on the federal government’s investigation of the lab by Sept. 6. He also said staff may request some employees to sit for transcribed interviews.
The FBI and HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose congressional district covers parts of Fresno, said earlier this month he found news of the lab raid “disturbing” and said he would also refer the matter to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
“My concern is to get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told reporters at his district office in Clovis earlier this month, asking: “Where’s this happening in other parts of this country?”
“There’s a lot more questions that need to be answered,” said McCarthy, who added that he would also be reaching out to the FBI.
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