Sheriff Villanueva: County COVID Testing Company Passes Info to Republic of China

November 29, 2021

By Brian Hews

Hews Media Group-Community News has obtained a letter from L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors alleging that the COVID-19 registering and testing system contract with Fulgent Genetics Corporation is not safe from foreign government’s intrusion and will likely “be shared with the government of China.”

Villanueva says that he was contacted by the FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordinator who shared very concerning information regarding the testing of county employees by Fulgent.

Villanueva said there was a November 26 meeting at the FBI Los Angeles Office attended by LA CEO Fesia Davenport with all the Supervisors invited, sources are telling HMG-CN that county lawyers attended.

The FBI stated that the purpose of the meeting was to inform county leaders of the serious risk associated with allowing Fulgent to conduct COVID-19 testing of county employees.

Villanueva said he was shocked to learn Fulgent had strong ties with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences who is under control of the Peoples Republic of China.

“I am deeply concerned as to the vetting process which either failed to discover this or discovered it but chose to ignore it. A simple Internet search would have covered all the above facts.”

Villanueva alleged it was a no-bid contract extended to Fulgent.

Villanueva stated that the FBI felt strongly enough regarding Fulgent being used to test county personnel that they held an emergency briefing to disclose their concerns.

“The department will remove itself from working with Fulgent.”

Supervisor Hahn told HMG-CN, “I wish the Sheriff would get his deputies vaccinated instead of worrying about how the unvaccinated get tested.”

The county sent a statement out, “Los Angeles County’s contract for employee COVID-19 testing prohibits any disclosure of data collected without the County’s express written permission, and requires the company to store and process County data/information only within the continental United States. The company selected by the County is certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, accredited by the College of American Pathologists, and licensed by the California Department of Public Health and has contracts to perform COVID-19 testing for several federal agencies (FEMA, CDC, Dept. of Homeland Security), states (Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Wisconsin), counties (Orange, San Bernardino, Fresno, Santa Clara, Alameda, Napa), school districts, cities, and large private companies.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding our employees’ testing data, the County continually assesses any credible concerns that may emerge, in consultation with our partners in the federal government, to ensure that the terms of our testing contract are stringently followed. If a credible threat is confirmed, or if the federal government takes any steps to rescind its certification, we will take immediate action to ensure no employee data is misused.”