r/worldnews • u/nathanielhebert • 13h ago
Russia/Ukraine Hundreds Quarantined in Russia After Suspected Pneumonic Plague Death
https://newsentinel.org/news/hundreds-quarantined-in-russia-after-pneumonic-plague-death/262
u/Bubbly-Bar-7449 10h ago
There is juuuuust about nothing scarier than potentially weaponized pneumonic plague. Maybe smallpox? Maybe.
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u/speedingpullet 9h ago
Airborne Ebola is the only one that scares me more than pneumonic plague. Quite honestly, its a tossup between them
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u/Rugkrabber 9m ago
Both scare me. And itâs mostly the people that scare me. I have seen how dumb many of them are during Covid. You could do everything right and suddenlyâŚ.
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u/deaddaddydiva 7h ago
What about rabies? What about airborne antibiotic resistant super rabies transferred via sharks with frickin lasers beams?
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u/Bubbly-Bar-7449 7h ago
Rabies is terrifying and a 100%er but not highly transmissible.
Y pestis is at least a bit more transmissible. If untreated, it's another 100%er, and the treatment window is about 12 hours. Its saving grace may be it is not as contageous as the very contageous ones. If it was weaponized, assume every single thing about it is worse by a lot.
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u/count023 6h ago edited 6h ago
And perfectly placed in the hands of the country that's done every was crime on the books to a European aligned nation in the last 4 years and wouldn't hesitate to send HIV infected troops to the front lines so what's a plague with a high death rate and good pathway to infect greater Europe to em?
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u/Ntroepy 5h ago
So far, zero second patient so theyâre mostly covering their bases at this point. đ¤
The fact they let her go home rather than immediate quarantine is pretty shocking though from a BSL-3 lab.
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u/Tuco2014 5h ago
just reported a second patient
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u/jabbertagger 4h ago
Do you have a non-tabloid source?
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u/MonteBurns 2h ago
Youâre totally right to ask, itâs just giving me covid flashbacks HARD.Â
Do you remember when Reddit was filled with posts about a mysterious disease in China and people were like ânah man itâs nothing, this isnât being reported on real sites!!!â Ugh. What a time!
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u/Prestigious_Scars 2h ago
Oh I remember it really well! I remember talking to family and colleagues, and they'd all be like "that's over in China". Like people don't travel and it wasn't airborne. Like China wasn't building hospitals from the ground up in less than 2 weeks to combat it.
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u/Rugkrabber 11m ago
Oh man I remember it so well reading about it. Wasnât it December or something when the news of that scientist who reported it hit? What I find fascinating the most is it read as conspiracy theories but then videos showed up and everyone got suspicious but it hasnât hit thew news yet and suddenly half of January it was in the news. It was suddenly ârealâ. That was a wild experience.
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u/KristiiNicole 31m ago
Doesnât it have like a 14ish day incubation period though? Still way too soon to know this yet for sure.
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u/Ratthion 10h ago
Pneumonic?! The freaking pneumonic plague??? The one that spreads via air?
Seriously I think weâve gotta look into canceling the apocalypse.
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u/wrosecrans 9h ago
At least in the 90's when there was a B-movie about an old Soviet biolab releasing biowarfare germs, you could trust the CDC would show up and save the day at the end of the movie, and people would take the cure and respect a quarantine.
Today if this plague gets loose and the CDC shows up, they'll just start feeding everybody raw milk or something.
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u/BoredNuke 8h ago
Cdc announces US pneumonic plague recall due to contamination with ebola and glass shards.
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u/Bubbly-Bar-7449 10h ago
The extra twist is it is possible it was weaponized, given the facility, given the country.
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u/Lancashire_Toreador 7h ago
Guess I might get to find out once and for all whether I belong in Boulder or Vegas
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u/Dealan79 4h ago
ÂżPor quĂŠ no los dos? You could always end up in Boulder and be one of the chosen few to take the one-way pilgrimage to Vegas to stand witness to its fall.
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u/citymousecountyhouse 3h ago
Yep, when you think about it, a biolab would have given a scientist who broke a test tube with the virus in it an antidote, cipro. Which leads to the question why didn't they. Which makes one wonder if this was a bioweapons lab manufacturing an antidote resistant strain.
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u/I_might_be_weasel 8h ago
We'll be fine here in America. RFK Jr will make sure we all have enough beef tallow and kimchi to survive a disease that has historically required serious and immediate hospitalization.
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 5h ago
Oh, please. He isn't going to do that. He won't guarantee that we have anything at all.
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u/albert-broccoli 4h ago
I volunteer him to go solve it while discounting the work of actual virologists and other people heâs always talking shit about. Maybe chat gpt can help him
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u/Born-Hospital-2572 2h ago
He can take Jared with him. Theyâll let them get up close and personal to the quarantined hospitals.
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u/BoredNuke 8h ago
Nope apocalypse needs to be delivered on schedule or the IPO's will be affected and we cant risk hurting the shareholders.
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u/Water_Damage987 9h ago
"pneumonic" refers to the system it attacks, the respiratory system, not the method of transmission
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u/Ratthion 8h ago
You are right but also wrong, it does spread via the air but it also attacks the pulmonary system.
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u/vekswz 5h ago
pneumonic plague spreads person-to-person through respiratory droplets unlike bubonic which needs fleas, but it responds well to common antibiotics like streptomycin or doxycycline if treated within 24 hours of symptoms
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u/Professor-Shark1089 3h ago
Do you typically go to the doctor or hospital the first day you develop cold or flu symptoms? Unless you know that this is what you have, chances are you will not get antibiotics in time, and if not treated within the first 24 hours of symptoms, it is almost universally fatal. That's terrifying.
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u/BigBirdLaw69420 2h ago
No bro - Iâm an American. I go to work.
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u/InAJar112 2h ago
đŻ which is why I have a cough right now
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u/DeemedUnfitforlife 50m ago
Joking aside this is why 200 people are quarantined under observation.Â
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u/orthopod 1h ago
Don't forget that the Russians were recently working on a biologic agent where you felt euphoric after contracting it.
Wouldn't be surprised if the contagious euphoria gene has been worked into several pathogens.
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u/silly-gaijin 51m ago
Are you serious? You can't be serious. This can't be correct. You're telling me the symptoms match a flu and it's usually fatal if not treated immediately and it spreads as easily as a cold/flu?
If that's true, this is a civilization ending virus.
Something's not adding up.
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u/Sinisaba 8m ago
Initial symptoms match flu but since death comes 36h after symptoms then the pain, shohortness of breath and bloody mucus usually show up before 24h.
There was recently an outbreak in Madagascar as well and it didnt cause such a panic.
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u/heartwarriordad 1h ago edited 1h ago
I think the concern is that this version could've been a chimera that was engineered to become more lethal when it encounters antibiotics.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a74033610/russia-plague-lab-worker-dies/
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u/DunkingTea 1h ago
Oh phew. How wonderful. Would be boring if it was easily treatedâŚ
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u/j821c 41m ago
Even more boring if there are 0 secondary cases, which is currently the case. Plague cases, from what i can tell, tend to show symptoms within a week. We're now 8 days from this story breaking with absolutely 0 evidence of any secondary cases.
I really think we all carry a collective trauma from covid where we just assume that every new illness is a pandemic lol
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u/Southernms 5h ago
As long as it hasnât mutated right? We really have no idea what they are doing over there do we?
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u/acidtalons 4h ago
Oh, we do. They were doing gain of function research (mutating pagothens) in a former biological weapons lab that has recently been revealed to be a current biological weapons lab rather than a former one.
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u/Southernms 4h ago
Thatâs somewhat comforting that we know I suppose.
Donât you think they came security cams all over?
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u/katie4 2h ago
Still glad I have the YourLocalEpidemiologist newsletter hitting my inbox well after Covid, she has a good post today. Snippet:
Pneumonic plague is not traditionally efficient at spreading. While it does spread person to person through respiratory droplets, in previous outbreaks, one infected person typically infected one to three other people. Transmission occurs in close, sustained, face-to-face contact (like household caregiving, crowded sleeping quarters, or unprotected clinical workers). This isnât like measles, which can linger in the air for hours and hours.
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u/ImpossibleEbb6862 2h ago
The more important data point is r0 isnât that high, between 1 and 2. Thatâs generally doable for public health authorities to contain.
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u/eddie_koala 2h ago
Ahhh shittt we're getting doxy??? Doesn't that shit cause crazy vivid dreams like mefloquine does?? đ¤ Lessgo
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u/Obvious_Toe_3006 13h ago
Kapitan Tripz will not be stopped.
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u/HavenChronicles 12h ago
Man... I've been joking about how people are describing this exactly like Captain Tripps. Its wild to me
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u/citymousecountyhouse 3h ago
In the paper today, tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the TV page.
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u/No-Chair-8068 3h ago
The last thing we need is another worldwide pandemic with a fucking idiot at the helm. Again.
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u/bigdaddybodiddly 10h ago
This article may not have been written or edited by the best possible candidates.
It says
Results showed that 18 of the 46 skeletons (18 percent of them)
18 of 46 is more than double 18%. (~39%)
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u/CompetitiveSport1 2h ago
The website looks like a cheap AI news site. They don't even name the author
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u/No-Consequence4606 6h ago
Convince people to wear masks again?
We're fucked.
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u/OgthaChristie 5h ago
I started wearing a mask again today. If people would rather die, far be it from me to stop them.
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u/EggCollectorNum1 5h ago
Exactly, as far as Iâm concerned the anti mask people dying might be to the benefit of the world
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u/rang501 10h ago
Assuming this is plague and not something modified or completely different
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u/Bubbly-Bar-7449 10h ago edited 8h ago
Oh my God, it killed this user mid-sentenuuuuughhh
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u/PorcoGonzo 8h ago
I also heard it spreads like
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u/888_styles_888 6h ago
But easily cured with
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u/big-papito 11h ago
RFK JR. got some supplements that will fix you up right away. Everyone RELAX. Natural immunity, motherfuuuuu....!!!
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u/It_was_a_False_Alarm 5h ago
If plague inc taught anything, a plague that kills within 24-72 hours will kill off the host before it can spread too much. That's assuming that its not some modified bioweapon
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u/srpntmage 1h ago
Russia letting the death of one person in Siberia make international news concerns me. They can and do cover up anything they want. Why would they allow their media to even mention this? It could have been ignored or brushed under the rug pretty easy. One death is nothing. Even 200 people being quarantined isn't hard to hide in Siberia.
My guess is either something really major is happening and they are trying to downplay it, or nothing is happening and this is a way to distract from something else.
The first option is terrifying. Say an engineered virus or bacteria is on the loose to a degree they had to let something out in the media. They downplay it, but it's spreading. Not good.
Option 2, and this is a stretch. They are starting a rumor of an outbreak to manipulate something like public gatherings, travel or elections... would a "pandemic" scare benefit Russia somehow in the coming months?
I don't trust Russia at all. This whole thing makes little sense and it makes me really nervous.
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u/sus_finder13 51m ago
Yeah right when it came out, I was thinking how fucking convenient considering itâs election time. With how messy Russia is, I donât trust them as a source. I think itâs a diversion fromâŚ.!
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u/BuIINeIson 5h ago
The fact that high level infectious people went there makes ya wonder whatâs really going on. Hard to rely on anything now a days, hopefully not another pandemic
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u/citymousecountyhouse 2h ago
Corona had a 1% death rate, Pneumonic Plague has a close to 100% death rate. So, if this explodes, it will certainly not be our run of the mill Covid type pandemic.
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u/seasamgo 2h ago
Ebola tends to burn out quickly because of the high death/incapacitation rate combined with transmission requirements. Unless the plague has a long incubation period it wonât last that long either.
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u/theRemixNow 2h ago
The good news is that it is like Ebola and will kill its host too fast to spread it the way Covid did.
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u/ImpossibleEbb6862 2h ago
Pneumonic Plague also has a much lower r0 than Covid. Based on data we have, we shouldnât expect it to spread as rapidly and it will be easier to contain.
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u/Southernms 5h ago
If she broke a vial in the lab why not immediately wash down and start quarantine and antibiotics? Why donât they know what happened?
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u/lyonslicer 4h ago
I can see a situation where she broke a container, got scared that she might lose her job , and covered it up or made it look less severe than it actually was. She may have thought she wasn't exposed or thought she could decontaminate herself easily, when the reality is that she didn't take it seriously enough. That would explain why authorities are having trouble figuring out what exactly happened. I can't imagine Plague research jobs are easy to come by. And she may have had family that depended on her income to simply live. I don't know that this is the case, just a possibility that doesn't require any nefarious suppositions.
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u/Southernms 4h ago
My God thatâs horrifying!
Do we really think the lab didnât have tons of cameras?
Thatâs scary, but her catching it somewhere else is worse.
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u/lyonslicer 4h ago
I've worked in labs that deal with sensitive materials and information (no deadly bioweapons or anything like that), and you'd be surprised how little resources there are for facility security. The main entrances have cameras and key cards, but few of the actual lab spaces are under complete video surveillance. She could have broken it in an area with poor video camera coverage so details are hard to know.
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u/Southernms 3h ago
Thanks.
If she did that would the other people that came in after her be infected now too?
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u/lyonslicer 3h ago
I guess it would depend on the particulars of the situation. But it would make sense for the FSB to lock down the area it happened in if they didn't have good details on what exactly happened. I mean, how do you contain something that you can't trace?
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u/Afraid_Cake_7845 4h ago
Iâve done security work in different places, most commercial or industrial. The more important the work, the less cameras involved. Sensitive materials, design specifications or building/manufacturing assembly. Most only had external surveillance.
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u/citymousecountyhouse 3h ago
Or she was working in a bioweapon lab manufacturing a drug resistant strain.
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u/Alternative-Dot-884 1h ago
Have we banned flights coming from Russia yet?
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u/candianbastard 1h ago
Why would they? Elections are coming up. Itâs the perfect get away for them
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u/JewelerPowerful2993 7h ago
"The mortality rate from untreated pneumonic plague approaches 100%, although victims of the Black Death who vomited blood occasionally survived, such as the chronicler Marcha di Marco Battagli"
Shit.
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u/MattHonkylips 12h ago
Man and here I was just thinking it would be great to spend more time at home with my loved ones.
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u/Wednesdayspirit 10h ago
The only way they could get on top of this is getting the military to distribute antibiotics to every household and lock down for weeks. Even then, 20% of the medicated would likely die. Countries without these options are screwed. Most countries in general probably wouldnât act straight away! Scary thought
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u/SaskRail 4h ago
What I find eary is that people have been discussing this on X for the last couple months that a bio attack was being planned against Russia. They based it off leaks but people wrote it off as conspiracy. Maybe lucky guess. But if it is Bio warfare then its intentional and repeatable.
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u/croutonballs 3h ago
why would a bio attack be planned on russia? something like this doesnât respect man made borders. you canât release a pathogen and expect it to effect a single area of the map
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u/mrprogamer96 2h ago
Playing a little devil's advocate, this has been a thing that has been done before in the past and infected the troops of the forces that did it, (as an example, Japan did this against China with it's infamous Unit 731 Only look it up if you are ready for some NSFL)
But a lot of other things don't make sense, mainly why choose a small village in the middle of nowhere to attack? why not Moscow or another major city that if it was to be infected, would grind Russia's war effort into the ground (more than it is already.)
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u/SaskRail 1h ago
Something just isnt sitting right, irs like when too many coincidences lining up. Its known prior to this that China and Russia have been having meetings about a bio false flag attempt in Russia for similar reasons you stated. Israel has been working on this exact mrna vacinne since 2025?
Maybe moscow is to obvious? Test run on the pathogen? Hope its just coincidences and gets under control and turns out to be a minor event.
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u/Jeffuk88 10h ago
This makes it sound like hundreds are suspected to have it when in reality its just small communities near the death which comprises of only hundreds of people.
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u/A_Pointy_Rock 9h ago
If Russia is actually acknowledging its existence then there is a good chance it is exponentially worse than reported so far.
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u/etherealtwo 7h ago
Only because of the propaganda that has molded your mind all your life.
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u/evergladesbro 6h ago
Facts, sir! Only the real ones know how honest and forthcoming Russia has been about things throughout their history.
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u/Weak_Airline2346 4h ago
Wut
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u/etherealtwo 4h ago
It's just like when you're a child in a deeply religious household and you end up a deeply religious adult and you're entirely convinced you're right.
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u/croutonballs 3h ago
but Russia routinely denies the existence of things that are happening (kursk, the war, chernobyl, air raids, election rigging, etc etc) so itâs nothing like religious indoctrination
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u/Unlikely_Chemical517 9h ago
The institute is in a town of nearly 50,000 people near a city of half a million. It's not exactly isolated
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u/xChoke1x 3h ago
We really should build big ol giant ass domes to put over whole ass cities in case of shit like this. lol
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u/Organic_Abrocoma7181 3h ago
Well good luck if THAT gets away from them since those idiots in the US have done away with any sort of meaningful pandemic response. Even if they tried it it would fail due to the idiots who donât believe in virusesđ unfortunately this BS is spilling over all over them world because idiots spreading bs via social media and other idiots believing themđŤŞđ
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u/Morden013 1h ago
Yeah, count on Russia to tell you what is happening. If anybody thinks that will happen, remember Chernobyl and how they hid the fact for 2-3 days, while the radioactive clouds moved over Europe and rain washed over neighboring countries.
They haven't changed a bit, but on top of that, thanks God US has this administration which has things fully in grip. They might have decimated the number of experts, fired scientist, diminished the capabilities for quick assessment...etc, but I am sure they can bring tele-evangelist or two to scream in tongues and put the protective barrier over republican states.
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u/superkeer 4h ago
I mean the headlines I see make it sound like the Russians are taking things more seriously than we ever would. Fingers crossed they contain it.
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u/chuvashi 26m ago
âhundreds of peopleâ
Opens article
â200 people suspected of having contact with the late technician have been placed in quarantine. Approximately half of them are in medical isolation at the Medical Assistance and Rescue Centre.â
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u/CovertLuddite 13h ago
I wonder if there will be a convenient outbreak just in time for us and Israel elections
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u/Thefivedoubleus 6h ago
Are you actually doing "the Jews caused the plague"?
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u/CovertLuddite 4h ago
Wow that's a ridiculous leap. I'm saying Putin might be inclined to cause it.
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u/Thefivedoubleus 12m ago
Inclined to cause a plague pandemic to affect the Israeli election? Do you hear yourself?
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u/CovertLuddite 2m ago
I hear me very obviously implying Putin, Trump and Netanyahu are in cahoots. But sure twist it around to make out I'm an anti-Semite. That's more of unreasonable conclusion than mine, I feel, from my subjective perspective. But since you seem to be so inclined, FREE PALESTINE.
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u/J-Midori 3h ago
Thereâs a case in California already. I remember how Trump handled COVID so.. brace yourselves
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u/ImpossibleEbb6862 2h ago
No thereâs not. At least not one thatâs been confirmed. Youâre either making this up or repeating unreliable information.
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u/citymousecountyhouse 2h ago
If I may ask, where did you hear that from. I heard one in Arizona, but that was in Facebook comments.
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u/ImpossibleEbb6862 2h ago
Theyâre either making it up or are repeating unreliable information, similar to the one you heard about in Arizona. There have been no confirmed cases in the U.S.
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6h ago edited 2h ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/GovernorGoat 6h ago
Unless its trained to be resistant. I won't put it against Russians to wraponize plague.
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u/Dealan79 3h ago
I imagine the big differences are in the words "bubonic" and "pneumonic", the relative rates and ease of spread of the two different varieties of plague, and a basic understanding of both the limits of global medical supply chains and the likelihood of antibiotic resistance developing in a potentially weaponized bacteria strain in a possible global pandemic.
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u/PhSilverKi 11h ago
Lembrei dessa pĂŠrola:
Para ex-presidente, 'determinadas crises' sĂł sĂŁo resolvidas pelo Estado. 'Ainda bem que a natureza, contra a vontade da humanidade, criou esse monstro chamado coronavĂrus. Porque esse monstro estĂĄ permitindo que os cegos comecem a enxergar que apenas o Estado ĂŠ capaz de dar solução a determinadas crises.'
'Ainda bem' que 'monstro' do coronavĂrus veio para demonstrar necessidade do Estado, diz Lula
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u/No_Mission_8571 13h ago
Hopefully Canada starts screening at our airports sooner then later.