In March 2020, BGI Group offered Washington’s Gov. Jay Inslee COVID-19 testing support as well as to five other states, including New York and California, Mr. Evanina said. Mr. Evanina resigned from his post Jan. 20 as director of the national counterintelligence and security center in the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, according to a LinkedIn post.
The U.S. government put out a public advisory to hospitals, associations and clinics after learning of BGI Group’s offers to warn the public that “[foreign] powers can collect, store and exploit biometric information from covid tests,” Mr. Evanina said.
While it is unclear if BGI Group or any other COVID-19 testing companies are able to get DNA from nasal swabs, the testing labs are a way for international companies to bring equipment and devices into the U.S. and mine patient data, according to Mr. Evanina.
None of the states accepted the offers from BGI Group, which has close ties to the Chinese government, according to the report. The biotech firm declined to be interviewed for the report, but in a statement said: “The notion that the genomic data of American citizens is in any way compromised through the activities of BGI in the U.S. is groundless.”
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