[opiopi]

For anyone interested in what these labs look like, the podcast "TWiV" (This Week in Virology) did a video where they visit Boston's BSL-4.

Software engineers might appreciate the simplicity with which redundant failsafes are attained - each Biosafety Level being contained by a less safe abstraction.

Thus a BSL-4 lab is essentially 4 labs built inside themselves, like a Matryoshka doll for pathogens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqAjkjGq8Ug

[ChemSpider]

BSL4 or not is not really important anymore, as Dr. Shi did her experiments in a BSL2 lab. From the article:

"Unnoticed by most, however, was a key difference that significantly shifted the risk calculation. The Chinese work was carried out at biosafety level 2 (BSL-2), a much lower tier than Baric’s BSL-3+."

BSL2 is not much more than "wear a lab coat". https://consteril.com/biosafety-levels-difference/

So the nicest BSL4 lab does not help if you do not use it.

[jpeloquin]

BSL-2 is a lot more than "wear a lab coat". If it was just that, there'd be no BSL-1. BSL-2 usually also means doing work in a biosafety cabinet and sterilizing disposals, although the controls employed vary depending on the hazards specific to the actual work being done. If you're interested, Yale lays it out in 200 pages of detail: https://ehs.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/biosafety-man...

[tim333]

Or for the lazy there's the start of Contagion https://youtu.be/-1di7g4Hm1s?t=31

[gnicholas]

Very interesting. Apparently the BSL-4 lab is engineered to ensure that that it resonates at a different frequency than the larger structure, for additional safety in case of an earthquake.

https://youtu.be/tqAjkjGq8Ug?t=612