Secret Chinese-run lab in CA illegally stored vials of Covid-19 and other

fresnobee.com

16 points·xkcd1963··5 comments

"Prestige Biotech Inc., a company whose owners live in China, was using the building near Reedley’s downtown for storing and shipping an array of diagnostic test kits for COVID-19, pregnancy, drugs and more after apparently being booted out of their Fresno location in late 2022. The inventory of biological agents in the refrigerators include coronavirus and other exotic contagions, such as malaria, Hepatitis B and C, chlamydia, human herpes, and rubella, among others, used in the production of various test kits...

"According to experts assisting the city, the lab looked like it was set up for shipping already-assembled test kits and for storage of components, chemicals, and biological agents used to develop test kits..."

So it was a warehouse for forwarding already assembled test kits that it could use as an excuse to have the pathogens already on hand.

Fake?

(Semi-)local here, definitely a real story, the local press has been going wild with it.

Started with a local paper and snowballed until it became national news (lots of good stuff in these articles, some in the Bee story and some not in it):

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investiga...

https://gvwire.com/2023/07/31/federal-investigation-opens-in...

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/08/03/questions...

https://sjvsun.com/news/fresno/what-was-inside-secret-covid-...

No. The FresnoBee is a legitimate news organization and the story has been reported on by other news orgs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officials-believe-fresn...

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