Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has drawn intense blowback from his county and a California genetics firm after he announced he would no longer have his employees utilize the company contracted to conduct mandatory COVID testing out of international privacy concerns.
As first reported by the Los Angeles Times, Villanueva sent a letter to his county’s board of supervisors alerting them to his concerns that data shared with Fulgent Genetics, which is located in Temple City, California, was “not guaranteed to be safe and secure from foreign governments.”
Specifically, Villanueva says the FBI warned him that Fulgent was sharing DNA data with China through its “close ties” with several Chinese medical entities.
“I am deeply concerned as to the vetting process which either failed to discover this, or discovered it, but chose to ignore it,” reads Villanueva’s letter, which was acquired by Bill Melugin of Fox Los Angeles.
NEW: The L.A. County Sheriff has notified L.A. County that LASD will not work w/ a genetics firm the County hired for mandatory COVID-19 testing/registration of County employees after he received a recent briefing from the FBI warning him about the firm’s links to China. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/WHtFcEZlPI
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) November 30, 2021
Both Fulgent and Los Angeles County have vigorously disputed the sheriff’s claims.
Brandon Perthuis, Fulgent’s chief commercial officer, told the Times that his company was founded and run by American citizens and does not share information with China.
Los Angeles County said in a statement that Fulgent’s contract prohibits the disclosure of data without the county’s written permission and requires the company store and process data in the continental United States.
The FBI has neither confirmed or denied Villanueva’s claims, but the Los Angeles Times did confirm a briefing had occurred on Black Friday and that Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl had also been invited but could not attend.
Kuehl told the Times it was her understanding that “there was no evidence at all, zero, that Fulgent had breached anything or had any relationship with the Chinese government that was harmful to the information that might be present in the samples that they’re testing.”
Fulgent holds contracts with numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, and is certified with the Food and Drug Administration.
Los Angeles County said that unless the federal government rescinds its certification or “a credible threat is confirmed” it would take no action.
All Los Angeles County employees are required to register their vaccination status with Fulgent and, if not vaccinated, must submit to regular testing through the company.