Nina Novus is watching the lab workers from a distance and through a reinforced glass window. Her editor has sent her to a local BSL-2 (biosecurity level 2) laboratory to see some of the barriers put into place for the testing of pathogenic (disease-causing) agents. The biocontainment facility involves a number of features which surprise her. She is surprised to hear that spills occur fairly regularly, and what passes for a spill may occur simply because a person walked behind a researcher working in front of the chemical fume hood. She has read in depth about how scientists and researchers have to gear up with great caution and then reverse the process and shower out in higher levels of biosecurity containment (with a scale that runs from 1 - 4, with 4 as the highest biosecurity level for highly contagious and dangerously pathogenic germs).
Novus commits everything she sees to memory. Her BSL-2 laboratory guide told her that it's critical to run scientific tests to verify what agent caused a likely illness before any decisions are made in autopsies or in even more complex scenarios, such as potential epidemics. Those who work in such labs go through a wide range of training. They seem highly aware of every move they make to avoid any sort of contamination or spill. They seem resigned to their slowness of movement and methodical steps. Their work is multiplied by various technologies, though, that enable them to test a number of samples at once.
And because of the privacy policies around human health issues, human samples are marked with electronic 2D codes in order to capture and collate health information but only for those who have a right to access that information—such as individual doctors and their patients. She is getting a systems view of the processes. Her lab guide mentions the criticality of the "chain of custody" of the samples, so it's clear where and how the samples were taken, who legally handled the sample, and so on—to make sure that no sample is tainted en route for confusing or inaccurate results. Nina has visited this facility to get a hands-on sense of what such a laboratory looks like.
Rumor has it that Dr. Salus "Dynamica" Mundi is headed to a diagnostic laboratory to vet their procedures and to also get a sense of some of the new technologies and techniques used in such spaces. Others say that she is going to a christening of a space. Some of the more far-fetched claims on the Internet are that she has a very high-value sample that cannot be sent by courier, but Dr. Mundi has not worked in such labs for years—according to her official biography—and she likely would not be handling such high-risk samples in her travels. There are many laws against the transport of biohazards, including highly pathogenic agents, which have to be handled in very particular ways so as to head off the potential spreading of diseases and the corrupting of samples.
On YouTube™, there is a video.
Given Dr. Mundi's most recent travels, she is probably pursuing the latest outbreak of a virulent form of zoonotic influenza. The fact checkers at the news agency suggest a shortened list of BSL-3 laboratories in the world specializing in such cutting-edge high-risk research are in particular countries. This is the best they can do from the lists of dozens of such laboratories all around the world.
As Dr. Mundi was going through the TSA line at the airport, she was seen on camera to have a badge to a BSL-3 laboratory. Based on her time and location at the airport, there were only five flights out to the various locales of the BSL-3 (and BSL-4) laboratories. Nina Novus peruses the map.
Nina Novus makes a video update.
Directions: Play only one of the following videos to the location that you've identified.
Germany
France
USA
Canada
Australia
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