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If I heard someone in my lab was running PCR on saliva samples potentially infected with 2019-nCoV, I'd lose my shit.



At the moment, you shouldn't be going to a lower than a biosafety level 4 lab at all.


This is incorrect. The CDC recommends BSL-2 for routine diagnostics and BSL-3 for isolating the virus in cell culture. (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/lab/lab-biosafety-...)


At the moment, most tests are certainly being done in less than BSL4, there aren't that many of them.

https://www.liquisearch.com/biosafety_level/list_of_bsl-4_fa...


You don't need live viruses for testing. You only need some viral RNA material so you can inactivate the virus by heating the samples to a certain temperature for example. Hazardous work for sure.


So your plan is to greatly reduce testing capacity?




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