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Comic Book Hero Takes on CDC for Dragging Its Heels on Illegal Biolab Investigation
A code enforcement officer who discovered an illegal biolab in Reedley, California, is the hero in a comic book distributed this past weekend by Reform Pharma, an initiative of Children’s Health Defense, to 10,000 attendees of Comic-Con International.
A local code enforcement officer who discovered an illegal secret biological laboratory, or biolab, in Reedley, California, is the hero in a comic book distributed this past weekend to over 10,000 attendees of Comic-Con International in San Diego.
“The Known Unknown,” features Theda, a fictional superhero who symbolizes the people and whose superpowers are “integrity, courage, and the instinct to protect and preserve humanity.”
Theda joins Jesalyn Harper, a Reedley code enforcement officer, who is investigating an illegal biolab she stumbled on while responding to a routine complaint.
Together they hold the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) accountable for its real-world failure to adequately respond to Harper’s repeated appeals for help from the agency.
In the comic, Theda confronts CDC Director Mandy Cohen and demands reform. She calls on the public to do the same.
Justine Tanguay from Reform Pharma, the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) initiative that produced the comic, told CHD CEO Mary Holland in an interview that the CDC’s priority “is supposed to be the health and safety of the American people.”
“But instead the CDC is actually a lobbying arm for Big Pharma, constantly pushing drugs and vaccines as the answer to all healthcare problems,” she said.
When Reform Pharma heard about the illegal biolab in California, it investigated the CDC’s handling of the incident and found gross negligence. Reform Pharma produced the comic to share the story widely as part of its mission to expose corruption.
Harper’s struggle to get CDC’s help protecting public health
In 2022, Harper was looking into a complaint about a large warehouse in Reedley operating without a business license. During her initial investigation, she identified a plumbing code violation — a green hose hanging out of the side of the building. That triggered an inspection of the building’s interior.
Once inside, Harper identified a series of health code violations, she told Holland. She found “a room full of white mice, there were refrigerators labeled with blood. I could see in some of them … I could see beakers of what looked like urine and stuff like that.”
Working with the local health department, Harper realized she had found Universal Meditech Inc., a company run by a man named Jia Bei Zhu. The health department was looking for the company, which previously operated illegally in Fresno.
Universal Meditech was engaged in fraudulent sales of medical device kits and other biological lab activity, according to a congressional investigation into the operation eventually carried out by U.S. Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno).
Zhu faces federal charges for allegedly manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices and making false statements to federal investigators, but charges have not been brought for the materials contained in the lab.
Harper worked with the state health department and other federal agencies to shut down the illegal lab and remove hazardous materials. The FBI took over the investigation — looking for possible weapons of mass destruction — for several months before handing it back to the state health department and her office, Harper said.
After that, local officials identified blood and tissue samples, along with thousands of unlabeled vials of fluid and ultracold storage freezers. They also found mice subject to inhumane conditions.
Concerned there were potential pathogens at the property, Harper contacted the CDC, which she said refused to assist and then simply ignored her, sometimes hanging up on her when she called.
It was not until she reached out to Costa, who pressured the CDC to investigate, that the agency finally responded.
When it finally inspected the biolab in May 2023, the CDC identified at least 20 potentially infectious agents, including coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis and herpes, NBC reported.
But even that investigation was inadequate, Harper said.
The CDC identified potential pathogens based on the sample labels, rather than by testing the specimens, which Harper said should have been done.
There were also many samples the agency took and destroyed rather than testing them to determine what exactly was going on in the lab, Harper said. The CDC also directed her to destroy samples, according to Reform Pharma.
The agency concluded there was “no evidence of select agents or toxins,” according to the congressional report. It arrived at that conclusion without testing thousands of unlabeled or poorly labeled vials, including many that lab workers had labeled as dangerous.
Local officials were initially left to handle the abatement process for all materials in the facility, which included 103.73 tons of general waste and 448 gallons of medical and biological waste.
In the process, they found more concerning contents, including a refrigerator labeled “Ebola” that the CDC had not identified in its investigation.
In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped in to help finish the cleanup of the site. Even after the cleanup was complete, Harper told Holland that the medical tests the company was selling illegally were still present at the site.
Harper’s efforts spark vital conversations
Reform Pharma wanted to share Harper’s story to show how regular people can make a difference. “Her heroic efforts not only shut down the rogue operation but also sparked vital conversations about regulatory reform and public safety,” according to its website.
Reform Pharma worked with Harper, Josh Coleman of V is for Vaccine and others to create the comic that tells the story of the CDC’s failures in the Reedley biolab investigation. A team, including an avatar of Theda, distributed comics outside of the Comic-Con event last weekend.
They held signs that raised questions about the CDC’s failures in the biolab investigation and talked with attendees who were shocked by what they learned, Reform Pharma’s Amy Miller told Holland.
Miller said that to get substantive reforms to the regulatory agencies, there must be other people like Harper. “Until people stand up like Jeselyn did, we might not ever know these things.”
“The more of us that speak out, the more we can get things done and make change,” she said.
Watch Mary Holland’s interview with Reform Pharma:
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