🇷🇺🚨 WAIT... PLAGUE?! RUSSIAN PLAGUE-LAB WORKER DIES FROM MYSTERY PNEUMONIA AS QUESTIONS SPREAD WORLDWIDE

🇷🇺🚨 WAIT... PLAGUE?! RUSSIAN PLAGUE-LAB WORKER DIES FROM MYSTERY PNEUMONIA AS QUESTIONS SPREAD WORLDWIDE

Now THIS is the kind of headline that makes you put your coffee down.

A 28-year-old laboratory worker at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia died October 2 after developing a mysterious form of pneumonia, setting off quarantines, international concern and a whole lot of questions about whether plague could be involved. Reuters

But before everybody starts ordering masks by the case:

🚨 THERE IS NO CONFIRMED PLAGUE OUTBREAK.

Russian health officials say plague has not been confirmed in the woman who died, and no plague cases have been confirmed among her contacts. The World Health Organization says Russia has reported no confirmed plague cases in Irkutsk. Reuters

Still...

Baby, the circumstances are enough to make people ask questions.

🧪 SHE WORKED AT AN ANTI-PLAGUE LAB

The woman, identified in Russian media as Darya Shipilova, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, an institution established to study and control dangerous infectious diseases. Reuters

She became sick and later died from what Russian authorities describe as pneumonia of unknown origin.

Authorities reportedly placed about 200 people who had been in contact with her under medical observation or quarantine as a precaution. By Tuesday, a local official said approximately 60% had already been released. Reuters

Now excuse me.

You work at the PLAGUE institute.

You suddenly die from mystery pneumonia.

Then approximately 200 people get quarantined.

And everybody is wondering why the internet said:

“THE WHAT LAB?!” 😳

🦠 SO WHERE DID THE PLAGUE STORY COME FROM?

Conflicting reports helped pour gasoline on the speculation.

One regional governor initially said the woman may have died from plague, while Russian health authorities have said testing has not established that diagnosis. Reuters

Rumors also circulated online claiming there had been a laboratory accident involving live bacteria.

That has NOT been established.

Russia's health watchdog rejected the lab-accident claim, and Reuters reported there is currently no publicly available evidence supporting several theories circulating online about how Shipilova became sick. Reuters

So we're not turning Facebook University into Johns Hopkins over here.

Rumor is rumor until somebody proves it.

🌍 WHO IS WATCHING

The World Health Organization is communicating with Russian authorities and currently considers the international risk very low. Officials say contacts have been identified, tested and monitored without additional infections being reported. AP News

Neighboring countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have nevertheless taken precautionary steps at their borders amid the uncertainty. Reuters

And yes, pneumonic plague itself is serious.

It's caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, can infect the lungs and can spread through respiratory particles from an infected person. Untreated pneumonic plague can become deadly extremely quickly.

But here's the part people forget:

Plague is treatable with antibiotics when diagnosed and treated early. World Health Organization

🎙️ LADY RED SAYS...

Listen.

I'm not yelling “THE BLACK DEATH IS BACK!” because the evidence does NOT say that.

But I'm also not gonna act like this isn't one hell of a sentence:

A young woman who worked at a PLAGUE RESEARCH INSTITUTE died from pneumonia nobody has publicly identified yet, and about 200 contacts were initially quarantined.

HUH?! 👀

That's when I need everybody with a lab coat to start answering questions.

Because after everything the world went through with COVID, the words “unknown pneumonia,” “infectious-disease laboratory” and “quarantine” appearing in the same story are naturally going to make people nervous.

The good news right now?

No confirmed outbreak. No confirmed spread. And no confirmation that she even had plague.

The unanswered question is still the biggest one:

WHAT KILLED HER?

Until scientists establish that, 730 BOOM isn't calling this a plague outbreak.

We're calling it what it is:

A mysterious death under investigation that health officials around the world are watching VERY closely. 👀🌍

730 BOOM RADIOIT HITS DIFFERENT. EVERY TIME. BOOM! 💥