Exclusive: The Kennedy Beacon’s Full Interview with Jesalyn Harper

The Public Servant Who Uncovered an Illegal Biolab in a Small California Town

Private biolabs operate with “practically no regulation…. They’re allowed to have these viruses, and they’re actually very easy to purchase [because] no one’s regulating them, no one’s monitoring them,” says Reedley, California, Code Enforcement Officer Jesalyn Harper.

When Harper discovered a garden hose protruding out of a makeshift hole drilled in the side of an abandoned warehouse, she thought she had encountered a relatively typical code violation involving an illegal water hookup. Instead, she uncovered the presence of an illegal biolab in the heart of a small agricultural town. 

In part 1 of The Kennedy Beacon’s exclusive series on an illegal biolab, we shared details of Harper’s discovery, and in part 2 we explored the contrasts between the responsible actions of local authorities in Reedley and the nonchalant response of federal agencies such as the CDC. 

In part 3 of this series, we present Jesalyn Harper’s full interview with the Beacon. She gives a detailed account of what she found, explains the challenges of shutting down this dangerous facility, and describes what she learned about unauthorized biolabs through her ongoing efforts to keep the Reedley community safe. 

Harper is now on a mission to spread awareness about the wider risks of unlicensed biolabs. According to Harper, “We need to be hunting these labs down…. This country could not survive another pandemic.”

Stay tuned for part 4 of our continuing series, in which we will explore the origins, alleged crimes, and unusual behavior of Jesse Zhu, aka David He, the mysterious owner of the Reedley biolab.