Update: The quarantine has been lifted, and Russia says that it’s pneumonic plague not the black death.
Last week, a lab technician at an Irkutsk, Siberian anti-plague institute died, possibly of the plague after reportedly, potentially, breaking a test tube containing Yersinia pestis. That is the bacterium that caused the Black Death in the mid-14th century, which killed 25 million people.
It’s tragic, but it could be even worse.
Russia denies the reports:
Russia’s national public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, is investigating the death of a 28-year-old woman who worked as a lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East and died on Oct. 2 from “pneumonia of unknown etiology.”
Her death prompted authorities to place nearly 200 people under observation at a hospital and researchers are conducting lab tests to better trace the cause of her pneumonia, which some fear could be a case of the highly fatal pneumonic plague.
Russian health officials told the World Health Organization on Tuesday that no cases of plague have been recorded in Irkutsk, and Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, said the public health agency has implemented a “comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures.”
Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said these reports of a plague outbreak were merely “rumors or speculation.”
That might not be the case. Russians put 189 people under medical observation and quarantined local hospitals. They are checking the temperatures of everyone traveling from Irkutsk.
Secretary Rubio said the US is monitoring the situation. Hopefully, they are checking everyone coming from Irkutsk. It can’t be many people, if any.
NEW: Secretary of State Marco Rubio demands transparency from Moscow following reports of a plague-related death coming from a lab outbreak in Russia.
Rubio warned that it would be “reckless” to speculate without complete data, while urging Russian officials to share critical information with the global community.
“Any time you hear that there’s some disease that infected someone in a lab anywhere in the world, you’re going to be concerned about it… I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world. That’s what they should do.”
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 6, 2026