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.
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