That... doesn't make any sense. What does the ability to run recombinant procedures (however ill advised doing so might be) have to do with running an assay on a human sample for diagnostic (as opposed to research) purposes?

To be perfectly clear:

* The CDC has already made an RT-PCR protocol plus associated primer and probe sequences publicly available.

* BSL-2 labs that do cell culture and employ viral vectors for transfection [1] are quite common in academia.

[1] https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/references/gibco-cel...