By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-06 15:56:50 | Updated at 2026-10-06 16:50:29
57 minutes ago
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said the Russian government should provide more information about the death of a worker at a plague research laboratory in Siberia that prompted concern about a possible outbreak.
The United States, he said, has received only limited information from the Kremlin about the situation on the ground.
“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,” Rubio told reporters in Iceland.
“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world. That’s what they should do.”
Rubio said it would be reckless to speculate about the incident without complete data.
Local Russian officials and its health agency said a laboratory worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia, located around 150 miles from Russia’s border with Mongolia, died of pneumonia of unknown origin.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state-run media TASS that people should not believe what he called rumors and speculation. He said people should follow reports from Russia’s consumer and health watchdog agency, Rospotrebnadzor. Neither the Kremlin nor Rospotrebnadzor provided a cause for her death.
A local state-run media outlet, Vesti-Irkutsk, said in an Oct. 6 social media post that health officials have determined the epidemiological situation in the region remains stable, adding that specialists have examined 60 percent of people who came into contact with the lab worker.
“It was previously suspected that her death could have been related to a particularly dangerous infection,” it said, adding that lab tests found two COVID-19 cases. “No other pathogens were detected,” it added.
Russia told World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday that it has no cases of plague in Irkutsk, the United Nations health body said.
Moscow, which is required under global health rules to respond to WHO requests within 24 hours, previously told the WHO that authorities were investigating whether pneumonic plague caused her death.
This undated photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East shows institute workers in a lab. The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East via AP
“No case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk, Russian Federation,” Russian authorities said in an official response to a WHO request.
They also told the U.N. agency they have identified the people in contact with the deceased and that test results for dangerous infectious pathogens were negative.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he was watching the situation and said he would be willing to assist Russia. He said he hasn’t spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the case yet.
“Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” Trump told reporters Monday.
Plague, an infection caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, can take three different forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic, health officials say. The bacteria can infect mammals, although rodents are more susceptible.
The most common form is bubonic, transmitted through infected flea bites and causing painful, swollen lymph nodes, the WHO says on its website. Septicemic plague, meanwhile, occurs when the bacteria multiply in the bloodstream, leading to organ and tissue failure.
Pneumonic plague is a severe lung infection that can be contagious through respiratory droplets and is fatal if untreated, according to the WHO.
Reuters contributed to this report.
