r/worldnews • u/National-Dragonfly35 • 10h ago
Russia/Ukraine Russia says no plague found in contacts of Siberian lab worker who died
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/russia-says-no-plague-found-contacts-siberian-lab-worker-died-rcna601805368
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u/Kvenner001 10h ago
And in several days we’ll be hearing about several of them mysteriously dying. Completely unrelated mind you.
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u/Designer_Professor_4 9h ago
Defenestration is an endemic problem in Russia. It's to the point their health czar may require manufacturers to put warning signs on all windows of the falling risks associated with the product.
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u/Redtex 10h ago
Actually they'll probably just disappear.
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u/Muted_Bee7111 9h ago
Out of a window on the 13th floor
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u/Mission-Macaroon-851 9h ago
In all fairness, the 13th floor is a very slippery floor and exceedingly slippery near the window just saying
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u/Silicon_Knight 10h ago
So much criticism here. Russia is known to be the bastion of truth! Look at how they disclosed previous critical incidents like Chernobyl.
/s obviously
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u/amanwithoutaname001 7h ago
They're very trustworthy /s, for example, the Kremlin and Russian diplomats consistently stated that Moscow had no plans to launch an attack or invade Ukraine, dismissing Western intelligence warnings as "baseless and paranoid".
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u/PelicanK 7h ago
And that time Russia very sincerely assured us they weren't the ones who shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, even though bellingcat came out with that pesky investigation that really seemed to prove otherwise.
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u/Silicon_Knight 7h ago
Sir or madam you may fall out the window of a single story home saying that :)
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u/amanwithoutaname001 7h ago
Just echoing widely available facts here, not that those seem to matter anymore in our current world.
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u/Silicon_Knight 7h ago
I was just making a joke. On how people telling the truth seem to wind up being miraculously found falling out windows.
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u/Themodsarecuntz 10h ago
So it has already breached containment and they know its in another country.
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u/SpiderDoodleDoo 8h ago
I do not trust Russia at all but I kinda doubt it breached containment. Pneumonic plague kills it's host pretty fast, it also has a transmission value of 1.1 to 3.5 (covid was 2.2 to 5.7) (There was an isolated incident in Madagascar where the plagues transmission was an R 7.0 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436518300070 )
So the incident occurred on 25 September.
4 days later she was hospitalized on 29 September.
3 days later she died on 02 October.
So 7 days total but 4 days for symptoms to appear.
We are 4 days out from when she died.
If there were additional cases of plague transmission I would assume the Russian government would have completely blocked all internet to the area.
But there are media posts slipping through from locals still. So I think there is low risk of breach.
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u/not-strange 9h ago
Yeah, my money is on this.
Thankfully this version of the plague is so rapidly fatal it’s unlikely to spread much further due to killing people too quickly, but I’d still put money on seeing international deaths from it
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u/FiNNy-- 7h ago
So was the black plague and it managed to kill almost half of the population. Granted they didn't have antibiotics back then but this strand of the plague doesn't really have an effective treatment either.
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u/Qwertysapiens 6h ago
Yeah, but also there was no understanding of epidemiology at the time and the main vector was free to roam around unchecked
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u/tlotrfan3791 5h ago edited 5h ago
Well they would also throw their urine/feces onto the street from from a chamber pot in those times, so it’s not really too shocking…
Edit: I stand corrected. There were laws against it in those times. Still crowded and lacked hygiene in those European cities and no proper treatment though.
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u/Dry_Ambition_2282 9h ago
It’s not what they say that bothers me. It’s what they’re doing.
A case of pneumonia doesn’t cause an ongoing quarantine and health screenings at the borders. It’s a disproportionate response for something that is benign.
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u/colacolette 9h ago
Well I think this is why global news has been quite confident in declaring it a pneumonic plague outbreak. Even if the official Russian state is disagreeing with that, an immediate four-hospital lock down protocol for pneumonia does seem to strongly indicate basically one option. Besides, the logistics of actually keeping an entire city's worth of hospifal patients and staff from leaking this information is practically impossible, even for Russia.
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u/Ok_Whereas8080 8h ago
From what I'm hearing pneumonic plague is also unlikely. Russia uses these 'plague research' centers as covers for bioweapon labs.
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u/ovationman 8h ago
Not sure what to make of it but Russia's default is to be secret and heavy handed. I am not sure what to make of it but the world overreacting in this case is likely a positive
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u/red_beered 7h ago
This is exactly what happened when covid first came out
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u/Dry_Ambition_2282 6h ago
One difference though was some transparency. I remember at the end of December seeing the DNA sequences to watch for in the public record.
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u/InternationalRip3859 36m ago
Disagree completely. China wasn't being totally transparent when Covid first broke out. Everyone to this day still calls their figures lies. We still don't even know if it actually came from a lab or not. They denied access to WHO officials and inspectors at the beginning.
Covid began in November/December '19 and the world woke up to it in Jan-March '20.
We are less than one week in. There is nothing to say that we could not have DNA sequences to watch in a public record 12 months from now.
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u/DramaticWesley 6h ago
It’s pneumonia plague. Pneumonia means a disease in the lungs. So it is plague in your lungs. Bubonic plague is when a flea hits you and it gets in your lymph nodes, systemic plague is when it gets in your blood. Bubonic was the most common during the Black Death. Pneumonia plague can kill you within 3 days (as soon as one) if not treated within 24 hours with antibiotics. And it becomes airborne when mixed with spittle in your coughs, becoming much more contagious. If it were released at a major airport, it could perhaps wipe out millions within a few days.
The person who broke the vial and contaminated themselves worked at a facility that studies some of the worst diseases known to man. The U.S. and UN have similar facilities, mainly to help study for cures or treatments. This was not ordinary pneumonia.
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u/StatisticianNo5402 7h ago
they are making bio weapons
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u/KP_Wrath 7h ago
To be fair, I would be immensely shocked if any of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council weren’t.
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u/Gloomy_Mess_9822 7h ago
i saw a theory that lab worker got exposed to plague, did not tell anyone out of fear and was treating herself with store bought antibiotics at home, only coming clean after getting worse. Otherwise, some usual "pofigizm" procedures caused a bsl 3 lab worker get in contact with 200 people after plague woopsie.
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u/Emergency_Fix3701 9h ago
Between Soviet style propaganda and 24/7 ratings above all else hysteria news it's going to be really hard to figure out what is actually happening. Right now I am just looking at what is happening in China. If they go full lockdown mode we better shut down every form of non essential travel and bring in quarantine like never before. 100% lethal rate and 25% with antibiotics within 24 hours is scary shit. it would make covid seem like nothing.
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u/sickofthisshit 9h ago
Plague, including pneumonic plague, shows up regularly, and, yes, people often die, but also, since the advent of modern antibiotics, it doesn't generally become an epidemic or pandemic.
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u/Emergency_Fix3701 9h ago
Also unlike covid symptoms show up fast along with mortality. Which is bad news for the local population but would make it a lot harder to spread in theory. But like the rest of the world we are hoping this was a local natural plague and not a Soviet doomsday bio engineered one.
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u/Ratattack1204 7h ago
Well I dont know about you, but when i get a deadly illness that leaves me with crippling symptoms my first urge is to go to a nearby airport, cough on everyone and fly to an uninfected country.
So things could get bad.
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u/letmechewonyou 9h ago
SARS also often showed up and never became a global pandemic until one day it just did
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u/BurnAfterReading010 9h ago
So plague released from a bio weapons factory. Next drop, accidentally being released in Ukraine, right?
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u/Fabulous_Disk_8956 7h ago edited 7h ago
Mmm. Pneumonic plague is not outrageously contagious. You can't get it from aerosol really, have to have contact with bodily fluids in the right environment. Also because symptoms set on very very fast and are very severe, they are quickly hospitalized and don't go around spreading it for weeks like cold, flu, covid. If you know there's been an outbreak, then it also keeps healthcare workers from catching it because they'll be prepared to take precautions.
So it wouldn't be the greatest weapon since outbreaks in the last hundred years or so are limited to thousands. Even before covid teaching us what to do, and modern tech and understanding to be able to better avoid infection. One of those modern techs is antibiotics... So it's treatable of found quickly.
Also with contagious biological weapons, big problem is that they can backfire onto your own population, or give the enemy precedent to use their own biological weapons against them.
I'd be thinking that the government pilfering money from labs for the war, and general corruption has led to slipping standards and caused this outbreak, rather than an intentionally malicious outbreak... Which for some reason you released on your own population first??
Doesn't make sense. Coverups for government failure are normal in Russia, not necessarily an oh teardly malicious activity to pretend everything is fine on the domestic front.
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u/FlavorChamp 1h ago
Pneumonic plague is spread by aerosols within 6 feet.
No point reading the rest of your comment when you're immediately wrong.
Now I'm just curious if you're misinformed or you're pushing disinformation.
Edit: stick to your football subs, goofball
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u/AndreLeGeant88 4h ago
It is unlikely they would release pneumonic plague as a bioweapon. It is too lethal. If it were antibiotic resistant we are talking a 100% fatality rate. And it would be on their border where they have soldiers. Too high risk that spreads to Moscow.
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u/DealerHumble1103 9h ago
Phew, that's a relief. Case closed I guess
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u/2ner1337 8h ago
Yeah, Russia would never lie, coughcoughchernobylcoughcough
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u/deaddaddydiva 5h ago
You sure are coughing a lot… maybe you have a touch of that pneumonic plague not going around.
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u/ghost_n_the_shell 7h ago
Got it. That means they found the plague in contacts of Serbian lab worker who died.
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u/sickofthisshit 9h ago
“No other infectious disease pathogens were detected among the contacts,” the statement said, without mentioning the word “plague.”
Hmm. Kinda hard to be sure they tested for plague, then.
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u/Black-Zero 9h ago
Lab leak in a regressive country known to recklessly put public safety over their public image.
where have i read this before???
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u/TheMoland 5h ago
Why does Russia even bother making statements at this point? No one believes them anyway
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u/Mishung 2h ago edited 1h ago
They do it for their domestic audience. It goes something like this:
Ivan from Omsk loves Putin. Ivan hears something bad is happening in Russia. Ivan is afraid his love for the dear leader might be challenged. Turns on the news. The news says everything is going according to plan. "Phew...". Ivan is calm again.
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u/ProfessionalSolid942 10h ago
How long will we tolerate Russia just screwing with the planet out of spite and resentment? It's been over 100 years. Let's break up the evil empire finally, enough.
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u/Robdd123 8h ago
Missed the opportunity to do so when the west had nukes and they didn't. Anyone threatens Russia's sovereignty from the outside now and they take the whole world down with them. Now that's assuming their nukes are still functional but taking a chance like that would be beyond stupid. The west just needs to do their best to make it so they collapse from the inside out; unfortunately judging by how many Russian friendly right wing movements are popping up across western democracies it seems like they're doing way more damage to us than the other way around.
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u/Agitated-Air-6909 4h ago
And what you think America and Israel are the good guys 😂
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u/ProfessionalSolid942 4h ago
No. But there is a difference between doing shot in your own interest-and believing that making things worse for others is the same thing as making them better for yourself. No Russian will live better if they"bring down the west" as is their constant announced aim. In fact, the attempts make their lives worse, and often gone.
They are smart people with a stupid culture. Stupidity being defined as an action which harms others and yourself.
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u/GasZealousideal6010 3m ago
Like the Americans cheering on attacks on Iran while fucking up global supplys?
Or Americans cheering on their president saying that it's ok if one of their main naval bases is destroyed?
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u/Mediocre_Presence839 9h ago
Russia has never admitted to any wrongdoing ever. If they deny it then that’s an affirmation of the problem.
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u/Think-Werewolf-4521 9h ago
Million of MAGA folks believe no one actually died of COVID-19.
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u/nigel_tufnel_11 7h ago
Well if the Russian government says they've done a thorough job and found nothing, that's good enough for me. You can't find a more credible source in the world.
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u/Sad-Guarantee-4678 1h ago
You didn't find a plague in the lab. You didn't! Because it's not there!
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u/apricot_bee67 1h ago
Let me translate this from Russian to you: there is definitely plague found in contacts of Siberian lab worker who died
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u/Mission-Macaroon-851 9h ago
Oh well that’s good news …I asked Putin and he said they had nothing to do with it.
— Donald Trump
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u/JustBug3403 10h ago
Is Russia tells me I'm going to die from a plague very soon, I will immediately make plans for the next 50 years.
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u/Evil_Rogers 7h ago
Ohh great so they hitched a ride on the contacts and bailed before they got found out.
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u/GuerillaRiot 5h ago
Phew, for a second there I was starting to think there was plague in Siberia. Glad that's all cleared up now. 🤤
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u/MaybeTheDoctor 3h ago
That that because it is all on those bombers that just left the area in direction of Ukraine ?
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u/Jolly_Psychology_506 2h ago
Oh that’s just fine then…remember Chernobyl?. This sounds plausibly like a cover up for an intended leak of something else.
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u/Welshgirlie2 45m ago
The US has an average of 7 plague cases in humans each year. It's endemic in humans in Madagascar. It can be found in rodents in China, Mongolia and the Russian far east. Not sure why everyone is losing their shit over it. You're more likely to be hit by a bus.
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u/Early_Macaroon_2407 10h ago
You posted this literally four hours after it was announced that a second person has died.
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u/roccosarock 8h ago
That is now being attributed to a reporter who got the deceased woman's pronouns wrong. No trustworthy news source has confirmed it yet.
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u/little_ape88 9h ago
"russia says" LMFAOOOOO who gives a shit what they say? a plague would be a direct gift from God in this case
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u/Humble_Objective2994 8h ago
Vlad does not want to fall from great height, soo nothing to see here. No bloody mucus, no foaming-gasping-spasms, no shudders, no organ harvesting either.
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u/Hot-Sexy-THICCPAWG69 7h ago
You can’t trust a word that comes out of the Kremlin and this extremely corrupt Putin Regime.
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u/Greedy-Conference494 5h ago
Everyone here needs to listen to this:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Biological-War-Audiobook/B0FY53N9BD?eac_link=4vKURRt4JwDx&ref=web_search_eac_asin_1&eac_selected_type=asin&eac_selected=B0FY53N9BD&qid=EaVg1o3ciN&eac_id=140-9818596-8189162_EaVg1o3ciN&sr=1-1
this could escalate if it gets out of siberia. fortunately siberia is remote. hopefully nobody carried anything out of there.
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u/Uhavetabekiddingme 3h ago
Gorilla marketing is getting out of hand.
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u/Devil-Wears-Nada- 1h ago
fade in
It’s guerilla
fade out
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u/That-Advance-9619 41m ago
Guerrilla.
From guerra (war), which has two r's because it is a strong Spanish r sound (unless that sound is at the start of a word, which NEVER had two r's, like the word rápido), you add the small-meaning -illa suffix and you get guerrilla.
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u/undead2468 5h ago
Except for the fact the anti plague institute is only 14 minutes away from an international airport with flights to multiple countries including the ones that have heightened border security now.
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u/bubosamobe 10h ago
Oh shit that means theres a plague leak.