Recently, an employee at a plague research laboratory in Russia died from an unspecified pneumonia, sparking international concerns about a potential plague outbreak. A renowned American scholar has written a warning reminding countries not to forget the fact that China concealed information about the COVID-19 outbreak. He emphasized that authoritarian regimes cannot be trusted to report the truth about epidemics.
According to reports from local media in Russia, 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who worked at the anti-plague laboratory, was hospitalized on September 29. A friend of hers told CNN that she passed away on October 2. The laboratory is located in Siberia.
The cause of death for someone so young as 28 raises many questions. People wonder why Russian authorities are downplaying the suspected plague connection while simultaneously taking swift action to isolate those who had contact with her and implementing more preventive measures.
Robin Brooks, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who previously served as the Chief Economist at the International Institute of Finance (IIF) and Chief Foreign Exchange Strategist at Goldman Sachs, expressed hope that Western governments learn from the COVID-19 pandemic. He warned against relying on authoritarian regimes to report accurately or uphold global public health security, as countries like China hold power in the hands of a few elites who are indifferent to the well-being of their citizens, let alone the safety of people in other regions. Brooks also called for cautious approaches in the absence of reliable information and advocated for cutting off air travel with outbreak countries to buy time to deal with the situation.
Brooks mentioned witnessing the Chinese government sealing exits of residential buildings in December 2019 to contain the spread of the epidemic. He highlighted the failure of Western countries to timely close borders, leading to subsequent outbreaks and the global spread of the virus.
Regarding the suspicion of pulmonary plague in Russia, Brooks stated that a mysterious plague had emerged in Russia, with authorities reassuring the world not to panic while contradictory reports circulate about large-scale isolations and lockdowns.
Russian officials have only mentioned that the deceased woman was diagnosed with “unidentified” pneumonia, denying that she died from the plague. The Russian health department stated that extensive testing did not find any link between her illness and the pathogens she worked with. Authorities claim to have tested approximately 60% of Shipilova’s confirmed contacts, with two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection identified but no other infectious agents.
According to Fox News, Kevin Esvelt, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) specializing in biosecurity and catastrophic pandemic risks, suggested that without pathogenic infection, it is rare for someone, especially a young person like Shipilova, to die of pneumonia. This raises suspicion of a pulmonary plague incident, the most potent and dangerous form of the plague that spreads through respiratory droplets, with a relatively short incubation period and lethal outcomes if untreated.
Brooks cautioned that similar to the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, the current situation is uncertain. He urged Western governments to prioritize severing air travel with regions frequented by Russian tourists.
In conclusion, Brooks sincerely hopes that this “epidemic” turns out to be a false alarm. However, if the situation escalates, he emphasized the need for countries to learn from the lessons of 2020: not to trust Russia and China and to implement robust isolation measures early on.
On October 6, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russia to remain transparent about the suspected plague incident and share more information with the international community.
Dr. Erica Schwartz, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated on October 7 that the unconfirmed case of pulmonary plague in Siberia poses extremely low risk to the US but noted that the CDC is prepared to monitor and screen relevant travelers. She mentioned that there are approximately 200 flights from Siberia to the US each year, with most arriving at New York City’s Kennedy International Airport (JFK), where the CDC operates a port health quarantine station to monitor and screen travelers from the region entering the US.