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The "Whistleblower Protection Act" unanimously passed out of the Senate Committee on Judiciary Tuesday, and now moves on to the Senate Appropriations Committee. It is one of two pieces of legislation that were introduced by State Senator Scott Wilk in response to CBS13's year-long investigation into the state's troubled COVID-19 testing lab.
California's troubled COVID testing lab will soon be shutting down. CBS13 has learned the state is terminating its $1.7 billion-dollar no-bid contract with PerkinElmer, the private company running California's taxpayer-funded COVID lab.
In addition to many other health concerns, emerging research suggests higher levels of these PFAS "forever chemicals" in the body may lead to more severe COVID symptoms and may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. A new test now allows the general public to identify the level of PFAS in their bodies at home.
State Senator Wilk introduced two new pieces of legislation in response to CBS13's year-long whistleblower investigation into public health failures at the state's troubled COVID-19 testing lab.
California's amended budget bill allocates $217 million to the state's troubled PerkinElmer COVID testing lab, as the lab continues to fail to fulfill the mandates in its recently renewed $1.7 billion no-bid state contract.
This two-year CBS13 investigation prompted state and federal investigations, new legislation and shined a spotlight on public health failures that it appeared state regulators tried to hide amid the pandemic.
Lab experts are speaking out after CDPH allowed its billion-dollar COVID lab to continue operating for nearly a year while failing to correct deficiencies that posed "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety" likely to cause "serious injury or harm, or death."
The long-overdue report of state inspections at California's troubled COVID testing lab is finally public. The findings confirm CBS13 whistleblower allegations and that the lab "pose(d) immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety."
There's been a lot of talk about drinking water over the past month. This all has some wondering, how do you really know what's in your drinking water?
Regulators refused to release investigations into flawed tests at the CA COVID lab ahead of its contract renewal. However, in an interesting twist, we're learning more about what they found, thanks to the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos trial.
State Senate Republican Leader, Scott Wilk, is demanding answers from the Department of Public Health following an ongoing CBS13 investigation into shocking public health failures at the state's $1.7 billion COVID testing lab. The state said it would make it's investigation public by mid-March but now says "the investigation is ongoing" as problems continue and the lab contract is set to renew at the end of the month.
It's no secret that students struggled with distance learning last year, but it's been difficult to quantify the actual impact on California students - until now.
Cybercriminals are targeting schools at an alarming rate and putting kids at risk of identity theft - and their parents may never know.
As more employers and schools districts require proof of vaccination, problems with the state's digital vaccine records could prevent some from proving that they're vaccinated.
With summer camp in full swing after a year at home, there are new questions about how sexual abuse at summer camps is tracked and reported.
It was intended to reduce the caseload for probation officers so they could focus on rehabilitating convicts, but some say the new law is letting child sex predators off early - in some cases before they complete rehabilitation.
After months of denied requests for information and interviews from public health officials, CBS13 turned to the Governor for answers. His response indicated he may not be aware of what's been going on inside the state's $1.7 billion COVID testing lab.
At least one school district has paused COVID testing after students got false-positive results from the state's troubled COVID-19 testing lab. Another says their positivity rate increased 1000% after switching to the state lab which has a 60% higher positivity rate than CA overall. Administrators are now calling for a state-wide moratorium on asymptomatic PCR testing for student athletes.
Parents are demanding answers now a month after the state was supposed to release its investigation into its troubled COVID testing lab.
Delayed COVID tests from the state lab forced some schools to cancel their football games Friday. Other teams decided to get rapid tests before the game and got to play. Now, two of those teams are quarantined because, when the state's results finally came in on Sunday, a player who had a negative rapid test Friday got a positive result from the state lab.
Same COVID test, same measure of virus, several different results: Negative, Positive, Inconclusive. So, who is right? The FDA says it's looking into "test result concerns" related to the PerkinElmer COVID test at the center of the state's $1.7 billion dollar lab contract.
Following a CBS13 investigation into the state's COVID testing lab and its $1.7 billion contract with PerkinElmer, the company is now effectively suing one whistleblower and indicating it may sue others.
State regulators found "significant deficiencies" at the state COVID testing lab that has also been the focus of a CBS13 whistleblower investigation.
Tens of thousands of inconclusive COVID test results from California's billion-dollar lab should be reported as positive, according to the FDA. The $1.7 billion dollar state lab contract requires test be FDA authorized. It isn't.
New whistleblowers are coming forward following a CBS13 investigation into California's billion-dollar COVID testing lab - sharing new allegations including concerns over compromised COVID results after quality controls failed.
