CBS13 COVID Lab investigation leads to new law
A year ago this month, CBS13 released a special report -- THE COVID LAB: State Secrets Exposed.
The multi-year investigation gave voice to brave whistleblowers who exposed public health failures at the height of the Pandemic.
Both state and federal regulators later concluded that the lab posed "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety" and was "likely to cause serious injury or harm, or death." Still, the California Department of Public Health didn't warn the public, or even pause testing, as problems continued for nearly a year. Instead, they quietly renewed PerkinElmer's $1.7B state contract.
Following these reports, State Senator Scott Wilk introduced several pieces of legislation that were intended to transcend COVID and ensure accountability and transparency long after the pandemic was over.
Senate Constitutional Amendment 7 was later replaced with Senate Bill 1271 and was signed into law in 2022. It takes effect on Jan. 1, 2023, and requires state agencies to submit the terms of proposed contract renewals for large no-bid state contracts, like PerkinElmer's, to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee for review. The Newsom administration quietly renewed PerkinElmer's no-bid contract amid ongoing state and federal investigations of the lab, even though PerkinElmer failed to fulfill its contractual obligations and was at risk of losing its license.
Senate Bill 947, The Whistleblower Protection Act, unanimously passed the State Senate but later stalled in the Assembly ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. It would have extended whistleblower protections beyond government employees to include employees of government contractors like PerkinElmer. Notably, PerkinElmer was awarded a $1.7B no-bid contract to run the state COVID lab and subsequently sued the whistleblowers who exposed wrongdoing. Wilk's office plans to reintroduce the whistleblower protection legislation in 2023.
The state ultimately terminated its $1.7B COVID lab contract with PerkinElmer.
WATCH THE CBS NEWS SACRAMENTO SPECIAL REPORT
THE COVID LAB: State Secrets Exposed
This 30 Minute Special Report followed the first 14-months of a CBS13 investigation that prompted government investigations, resulted in three pieces of new legislation, and was the subject of national media coverage that shined a spotlight on hidden public health failures during the peak of the pandemic.
Each of the original daily newscast reports is linked below. For ease of navigation, you'll also find video-chapter links for the special report: THE COVID LAB: State Secrets Exposed.
- 0:00 Prologue
- 02:16 Introduction
- 03:22 CHAPTER 1 A Billion-Dollar Promise
- 07:06 CHAPTER 2: False Positives
- 12:54 CHAPTER 3: The Whistleblowers
- 18:55 CHAPTER 4: Fixing A Flawed Test
- 24:01 CHAPTER 5: State Secrets Revealed
(This report first aired on Dec 30, 2021)