this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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There was blood and other bodily fluids in Gatorade bottles labeled in Mandarin, samples of at least 20 potentially infectious agents including malaria, dengue fever, and COVID-19 — and a pungent odor from what turned out to be nearly 1,000 mice.

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[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 51 points 11 months ago (3 children)

To anyone who hasn't read the article or watched the video yet: don't bother. It makes a lot of assumptions and answers very little. Really poor journalism.

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Really poor journalism

It goes beyond that. They took news that broke 4.5 months ago:

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investigation-on-reedley-building-uncovers-bio-health-hazards/

Then they remove any and all mentions that the facility was manufacturing testing kits for COVID, HIV, and pregnancy tests (do a cntrl+F for test in the OP article). Now, without informing the users that testing kits were being manufactured, the presence of disease samples and rats sounds more nefarious.

It would be like reporting that tons of fertilizer were found in a building, and not reporting that the facility belongs to a landscaping company.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

Court documents confirm the CDC found potentially infectious agents at the location. These included both bacterial and viral agents, including: chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5 and rubella. The CDC also found samples of malaria.

I don't know. Sounds pretty nefarious to me. They were infecting mice and human tissues with who-knows-what and disposing of them illegally, including in municipal waste.

Even producing tests in sketchy, illegal labs is pretty fucked up.

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Thank you for your service o7

[–] canuckkat@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I got as far as "Gatorade bottles labelled in Mandarin" in the summary to know that it's shotty journalism lmao

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 42 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Isn't this is pretty much what Russia accused the USA of doing in Ukraine?

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes:

"Russia has claimed without any evidence that biological weapons are being developed in laboratories in Ukraine with support from the United States."

[–] HerrBeter@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

Another projection? "I said it first so now you are the culprit"

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The Russian state isn’t exactly a reliable source of information about Ukraine or the US. They also claimed the Ukrainian government were Nazis.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

Not to mention the 3 day special military operation that is 653 days past schedule.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 5 points 11 months ago

Well they were found to have multiple copies of The Sims in their possession.

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is old AF and the only thing really going on with this place is that the people running it were disgusting pigs who could care less about bio waste disposal regulations, this place needed to be shutdown because it was a public health threat.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It never should have been active in the first place.

I have to wonder who is in charge of monitoring medical supply orders entering from China, and who's watching over businesses that have dozens of shell companies that are able to run bio weapons' manufacturing on foreign soil?

This is some scary shit.

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's absolutely not a bio weapons lab. It's a COVID test manufacturing facility, they had a horribly ran research facility that was not properly disposing of their bio waste that they used for their research. So basically they weren't properly disposing of the COVID samples that they were using for their research for creating the COVID testing equipment that they were manufacturing. There is nothing scary about except corporate and foreign disregard for rules and regulations in something pertaining to public health, this company should be barred from operating in California and the greater US as well as other WHO sponsored nations.

The story is months old and this is basically just clickbait for the conspiracy chucklefucks.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

It's a COVID test manufacturing facility

Unlicensed at the city, state and federal level. The 1000 mice were bioengineered to grow COVID antibodies but (the CDC also) found "infectious agents in the refrigerators including E. coli, coronavirus, malaria, hepatitis B and C, dengue, chlamydia, human herpes, rubella and HIV." Source

[–] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’m not sure. Was Ukraine accused of manufacturing at-home test kits outside of FDA regulations?

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Does Ukraine even have an FDA?

[–] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

That was a joke. That’s what the Chinese lab was doing, so if the Russians were looking for biolabs like this one, that’s what they were looking for.

[–] athos77@kbin.social 35 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Okay, I read the article and it's really left me with more questions, and with minimal indication that this is actually a Chinese government-run biolab in the US. I'd like more information before making a decision on that.

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 68 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It's because the article is withholding information* to "guide" the viewer towards conspiratorial explanations. Especially with lines like this:

What China’s lab was targeting with so many dangerous pathogens remains a mystery

Meanwhile, elsewhere, this was already answered:

https://apnews.com/article/california-biolab-covid19-test-kits-china-arrest-3ee30af1548356e017276860ebb21f53

The Chinese owner of an unauthorized central California lab that fueled conspiracy theories about China and biological weapons has been arrested on charges of not obtaining the proper permits to manufacture tests for COVID-19, pregnancy and HIV, and mislabeling some of the kits.

Also note, the OP article is not originally from AOL. AOL is quoting another article from a "Scripps News", practically in its entirety without any additional journalism on their part. If they had done any journalism, they would have found the AP article I linked with more info or the DoJ article on the charges that were brought up.

Edit:

This story broke in July 25, 2023:

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investigation-on-reedley-building-uncovers-bio-health-hazards/

investigators discovered that one room of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 and pregnancy tests

* Note, the words "test" or "tests" do not appear anywhere in the OP article.

[–] athos77@kbin.social 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The thing that really irritated me was the bit about "ooh, they're using equipment from China, that proves it!" I mean, no shit? Find me a lab, an office, a home, anything manmade in the US that doesn't have something made in China in it :/

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

Even in doctors offices. I had researched and bought pulse oximeters a few years ago (mainly on ali express).

You start to see the same designs with different branding as they're made by only a very few companies in China.

Since then I can recognize the same ones in use at every doctor appointment I've been at.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Oh wow. Thanks for due diligence.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social -1 points 11 months ago

Iirc, USA and China have labs in which they collaborate, in both nations. I’m wondering if this is one of those labs, and what exactly our governments are getting up to?

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There's been updates and charges:

https://apnews.com/article/california-biolab-covid19-test-kits-china-arrest-3ee30af1548356e017276860ebb21f53

The Chinese owner of an unauthorized central California lab that fueled conspiracy theories about China and biological weapons has been arrested on charges of not obtaining the proper permits to manufacture tests for COVID-19, pregnancy and HIV, and mislabeling some of the kits.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/operator-central-california-bio-lab-indicted-distributing-adulterated-and-misbranded

Edit: Original discovery article was from July 25, 2023:

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investigation-on-reedley-building-uncovers-bio-health-hazards/

investigators discovered that one room of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 and pregnancy tests

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I’m more shocked this is AOL.com

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It's old AF news and Scripps News is the one doing the reporting, AOL, like MSN and Yahoo, and the Hill, just rehosts "news" articles, they have no actual journalists on staff, just "news" outlets that pay them to be on their front page.

Also this place wasn't a "Wuhan lab" it was a medical test manufacturer that also had a shitload of bio waste onsite that needs to be cleaned up as it's a threat to public health.

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Almost a month ago that charges were brought up. Interesting that this article from 3 days ago is claiming so many unknowns and mystery about this facility since it's really old news and most of those questions have been answered:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/operator-central-california-bio-lab-indicted-distributing-adulterated-and-misbranded

The original discovery was made 4.5 months ago:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officials-believe-fresno-warehouse-was-site-illegal-laboratory-rcna96756

Edit: This might be the original news source that broke the story:

https://midvalleytimes.com/article/news/2023/07/25/investigation-on-reedley-building-uncovers-bio-health-hazards/

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah it definitely comes across as clickbait for the tinfoil hats.

[–] LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It definitely is. They go out of their way to avoid mentioning that they discovered they were making testing kits for various infectious diseases (which explains why you'd want samples of said diseases).

This information was in the original report that broke the story and the in the charging report:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/arrest-made-central-california-bio-lab-investigation

According to court documents, between December 2020 and March 2023, Zhu and others manufactured, imported, sold, and distributed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits, in addition to test kits for HIV, pregnancy, clinical urinalysis, and other conditions in the United States and China.

As I mentioned in a comment below, the word "test" appears nowhere in the "Scripps News" report.

[–] Buffaloaf@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There are still people that use AOL email addresses

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

And they should schedule a colonoscopy.

[–] aeronmelon@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

I don't know what the actual number is, but I'll bet the amount of people still unknowingly paying for America Online dial-up service is shocking.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 12 points 11 months ago

“Our local politicians are out there terming it Wuhan 2.0,” said Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba.

Living in Reedley must be a trip with people like that in charge. I watched the whole video, and everyone interviewed seemed wack.

[–] Jessvj93@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Were they stealing serum? Like Bovine serum and sending it to China? That's the only guess I can reasonably make.