LA County Sheriff’s Department shuns COVID-19 testing provider over China ties

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will stop using the county’s COVID-19 testing provider due to concerns DNA data will be shared with the Chinese government, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said this week.

In a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Monday, Villanueva said he attended a briefing Friday at the FBI’s LA Field Office, where he was informed of “serious risks” associated with testing by Temple City-based Fulgent Genetics Corp.

Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport and Rodrigo Castro-Silva, one of the county’s attorneys, also were present at the briefing, he added.

“I was shocked to learn Fulgent had strong ties with BGI, WuXP, and Huawei Technology, all of which are linked to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the Peoples Republic of China State Council and are under the control of the PRC,” Villanueva said. “I was even more shocked to learn Fulgent made no attempt to disguise the fact they will use the genetic information obtained in future studies. I am deeply concerned as to the vetting process which either failed to discover this, or discovered it but chose to ignore it.”

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined to comment on Villanueva’s letter or disclose what was discussed at the briefing. “It is not uncommon to brief law enforcement partners and provide information,” she said

Fulgent officials insisted Tuesday that Villanueva’s claims are false.

“Fulgent is an American company, and its founder, board of directors and leadership team is made up of United States citizens,” Brandon Perthuis, the company’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “Fulgent Genetics operates privately and independently in the People’s Republic of China and does not share personal data of any kind with the Chinese government.”

Additionally, Fulgent officials met with county leadership teams, including union representatives, in October to explain testing procedures.

“These representatives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office were made aware that Fulgent does not collect any personal DNA in connection with COVID testing and disregarded all of Fulgent’s valid points from this conversation in writing this letter to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors,” Perthuis said.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Professional Association, which has 1,850 sworn and nonsworn members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, filed a court petition in October, challenging a requirement that members register their coronavirus vaccination status with Fulgent or face possible discipline.

The county’s no-bid contract with Fulgent has shattered the Sheriff’s Department’s confidence in the county’s mandated COVID-19 testing process, Villanueva said in the letter to county supervisors.

“Many personnel have long suspected this information was being used in an unnecessary manner due to a rushed mandate that we now know will have long-term unintended consequences that will not be fully known for some time,” he said. “I trust you will take steps to immediately assess any further risk before any personnel are disciplined under the mandate for refusing to subject their information to the Fulgent system.”

Los Angeles County said in a statement that its contract for employee COVID-19 testing prohibits any disclosure of data collected without the county’s written permission, and requires Fulgent to store and process county data and information only within the continental United States.

“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,” the statement says. “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.”

Fulgent is certified by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, accredited by the College of American Pathologists, and licensed by the California Department of Public Health, the county said.

It also has contracts to perform COVID-19 testing for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Homeland Security.

The Sheriff’s Department will continue with its own proprietary COVID-19 registration system and will work with properly vetted companies that are not associated with Fulgent, Villanueva said.