https://www.breitbart.com/heal...tm_campaign=20261005

A female employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, a laboratory ostensibly dedicated to finding the cures for deadly diseases, reportedly died from “pneumonia of undetermined origin” last week.

Almost 200 people who came into contact with her are now under observation and, while officials in Siberia say there was no evidence of a lab leak, memories of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic loom over the incident.

The U.S. State Department said on Monday that “many details have not been confirmed,” and encouraged Russian officials to “share accurate information quickly and openly.”

“We’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it, and we’re doing that,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) said it was aware of reports from Irkutsk, but noted that “no cause of death has been officially confirmed” for the unfortunate lab worker.

“Based on unofficial information available, the public health risk to the general population appears to be low,” W.H.O. said. As of Monday morning, the organization had not published a health alert related to Irkutsk.

According to Russian media reports, the victim recently returned from a trip to the Mongolian border, and could have contracted her fatal pneumonia there. Another report claimed she recently took a trip to Thailand.

Some other local media reports said she “dropped a test tube” containing plague bacteria last month while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute and became sick afterward, but to date there has been no official confirmation of such an incident occurring.

The woman, who was in her 20s, was receiving treatment at a district hospital in the town of Shelekov near Irkutsk when she died on Friday. She was admitted to the hospital on September 29 with symptoms of severe pneumonia, which could be consistent with a form of the dreaded bubonic plague. Local newspapers identified her as 28-year-old Daria Shipilova.

Two hospitals and a local children’s clinic were placed under quarantine after she died and some reports say the Anti-Plague Institute was also quarantined. Public events in Irkutsk have been canceled, and eyewitnesses claim to have seen people in protective suits moving through the streets of Shelekov.

Another alarming report said agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the infamous KGB, have been escorting ambulances that were taking the people who came into contact with Shipilova for testing.

Local and regional officials said that no additional infections have been detected over the past ten days. W.H.O. gave assurances that “all of the patient’s contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness.”

Russian authorities also said “no microorganisms linked to the employee’s professional activities were detected” in samples taken from her body.

As the U.S. State Department noted, very few details of the case have been confirmed or denied by Russian officials – and both local residents and international observers are reluctant to trust anything Russian officials say about the situation.

The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute was established in 1934 and operates under the supervision of Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian government’s consumer welfare service.

“A special set of measures has been organized and implemented in response to the case of an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East who has been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown etiology,” Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement on Sunday.

“It is their official statements that should be relied upon, rather than paying heed to various rumors, speculations, and the like. Rospotrebnadzor employs highly qualified professionals in this field, so let us heed their official statements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Western health experts interviewed by various media outlets were guardedly optimistic that the situation in Siberia was under control, if the statements made by Russian officials can be trusted. They noted that additional cases of diseases in the plague family would likely have been reported by now, and while pneumonic plagues can be transmitted between humans, they are spread by airborne respiratory droplets which are not difficult to contain.

Bubonic plague is zoonotic, meaning it is generally spread by animals, notably including rats and fleas. Bubonic plague normally affects the lymphatic system, but it can spread to the lungs and become pneumonic plague, which can become airborne and transmissible between humans.

Some virologists noted it would have been shockingly incompetent for Russian officials to allow the victim to be treated at a public hospital if they suspected she had been exposed to samples of the plague, much less an enhanced or weaponized version created in a laboratory. The last detail Russian officials can be expected to confirm would be whether military or gain-of-function research was being conducted at the Irkutsk institute.

“We may see a few more people get infected, but the chances that this becomes a larger outbreak, let alone a global pandemic, is exceedingly low,” former White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told NBC News on Monday.

“If there were weapons programs, biological weapons programs in these labs, that would be much more concerning to me. We need to understand that now,” Jha added.

EuroNews pointed out on Monday that Rospotrebnadzor “has not explained why dozens of staff were isolated and restrictions imposed on several hospitals simultaneously if test results were negative.”

Hopefully not the start of another thousand page thread.

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while officials in Siberia say there was no evidence of a lab leak, memories of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic loom over the incident.

Ya think?

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encouraged Russian officials to “share accurate information quickly and openly.”

Yea, like that will happen. They're Russians.

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The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) said it was aware of reports from Irkutsk, but noted that “no cause of death has been officially confirmed” for the unfortunate lab worker. “Based on unofficial information available, the public health risk to the general population appears to be low,” W.H.O. said. As of Monday morning, the organization had not published a health alert related to Irkutsk.

Oh, you guys again? Still here? Don't believe a word you say.

quote:

According to Russian media reports, the victim recently returned from a trip to the Mongolian border, and could have contracted her fatal pneumonia there. Another report claimed she recently took a trip to Thailand.

When all else fails, deflect.

And it's a race - which will kill off humanity first - AI or idiots playing with diseases ill equipped to keep them contained (applies to both, perhaps).

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which will kill off humanity first - AI or idiots playing with diseases

I suspect the two are connected.

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but the chances that this becomes a larger outbreak, let alone a global pandemic, is exceedingly low,” former White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told NBC News on Monday.

I'm feeling better already.

It will spread. Gradually all over the world. I predict it will get real bad late summer into fall, 2028.

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Originally posted by cas:
It will spread. Gradually all over the world. I predict it will get real bad late summer into fall, 2028.

The place was getting a bit crowded...the occasional Purge could be a good thing

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
It will spread. Gradually all over the world. I predict it will get real bad late summer into fall, 2028.

CUT IT OUT

How about I lock this thread? And once it's locked, it's off-limits for discussion, for good.

COOL IT

Take your gloom and doom stupid-ass drama queen predictions elsewhere.

OK, apologies to cas and all for losing my temper, but, gentlemen, we are not going to do this every time the tabloid media thinks they've got another scare for us. It's bullshit. This story- despite the efforts they'll make to keep it alive- will fade away.

And yes, I know exactly what cas was referring to. I want us to resist these cynical reactions each time the press and the leftists think they've found the next COVID bullshit.

And I had my money on DaBola…

The Russians learned absolutely nothing from Covid.

The entire thing is bullshit but the usual suspects have latched onto it.

Ain't gonna work. The story will fade.

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It will spread. Gradually all over the world. I predict it will get real bad late summer into fall, 2028.

I'm pretty sure it is. I believe he's referring to and parodying the news media blowing things out of proportion and ginning up hysteria and manufactured crises, 2028 being an election year.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

If this is plain old Black Plague, it is not all that deadly in a country like the USA. Plague is easily treatable with modern antibiotics. That is is being “researched” in a lab tells me that it is being weaponized as was Covid.

Russia is fairly isolated due to the war and subsequent sanctions and travel restrictions. The only way this gets loose and poses a real threat is if it was slated to do so. If it somehow appears elsewhere but Russia, it is clearly an attack or part of a larger globalist agenda.

It’s only speculation at this point to wonder if the death was associated with a Russian biological warfare effort. I think that was unlikely because the Russians would have exercised more effective efforts to keep it from its becoming known. But ….

The Soviets continued their bio warfare programs long after they claimed to have stopped them in accordance with international agreements, and an unintentional release of anthrax agents due to incredible incompetence killed a number of their people in 1979.

For anyone interested, the book Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World by Ken Alibek is one to read.

I have no hesitation in believing that our good buddy Putin could have restarted such efforts.

And although it’s also based on incomplete information at best, it’s reported that this fatality was due to the pneumonic form of the plague, not the bubonic. The pneumonic form can be spread directly from person to person by coughing or sneezing and isn’t dependent on a vector such as fleas. It’s also considered to be the most deadly form of the disease and not as susceptible to treatment once the infection progresses enough.

I will be totally upset if I have to telework for two years like I did during the Wuhan Flu. I mean, I can't stand the weight loss from eating healthy at home. I don't like attending meetings in shorts and a tshirt. I worry about the gas in my vehicle going bad. Not again with this stuff.

^^^^^^^^^^
Now THAT was sarcasm!

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Western health experts interviewed by various media outlets were guardedly optimistic that the situation in Siberia was under control, if the statements made by Russian officials can be trusted.

Yeah, like the statements they made after Chernobyl.

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It’s only speculation at this point to wonder if the death was associated with a Russian biological warfare effort

True, but in its natural form black plague isn’t the scourge it was in the Middle Ages. As I’m sure we’re all aware, yersinia pestis has been present in the American southwest for decades and there has yet to be an outbreak worth mentioning. Plague is a bogeyman word to get ignorant, uneducated, or anti-conservative people to lose their collective minds.

Without trying to suggest anything more than we know, the danger posed by naturally-occurring yersinia pestis isn’t what might be concerning in this situation. Biological warfare programs conducted by various countries have usually included attempts to make such diseases more dangerous: more virulent, more infectious and easily spread, harder to treat. My understanding is that the Japanese BW efforts against the Chinese included the natural form of the plague via infected fleas, but other programs I’m familiar with have investigated going beyond that.

If this incident involved a laboratory accident, it’s not unreasonable to at least wonder what was being done with the pathogen. It could have been for some ordinarily legitimate purpose, but if the natural disease is nothing much to worry about in modern times, that seems less likely.