international standard for coronaviruses, dr. barak sees bsl 2 is too risky. we do all our work under bsl 3 conditions. we wear portable breathing apparatuses with tieback suits so workers are protected from anything that might be in the laboratory. now the wuhan institute virology is best known for its world class bsl 4 lab which became fully operational in 2018. those labs handle the world s most dangerous microbes with no known cures or treatments. this laboratory will mainly be used for research on highly pathogenic infectious diseases for which there are currently no medicine or vaccines. but in the year that it opened, u.s. diplomats visited the lab and expressed their concerns. they told their washington colleagues if a lab accident happened at this lab it could cause an outbreak of a bat coronavirus pandemic.