U.S. Sends Russia a Secret Warning Regarding Plague Researcher’s Death: Report

The United States has chided Russia behind the diplomatic scene for its lack of transparency in the death of a lab worker at a plague research center, according to a new report.

A secret diplomatic communication — known as a démarche — warned Russia that it has not fulfilled its obligations under international health guidelines, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper noted that “the mysterious episode … has stirred fears that an infectious disease might spread inside Russia and beyond the country’s borders.”

President Donald Trump indicated he would talk soon with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and said he could have more details about the episode on Wednesday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said details shared by Russia were “still quite limited.”

“We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world so that all of us could react accordingly and appropriately,” Rubio said, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know.

“We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour,” said Rubio. “We have multiple agencies, not just in the U.S. but internationally, that are watching it.”

A State Department representative said communications through official channels were ongoing with Russia and other nations.

What’s known is that lab worker Daria Shipilova died Oct. 2 of pneumonia in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, near the Mongolian border. Speculation flared almost immediately that she was exposed to a deadly pathogen during her lab work, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A global agreement known as the International Health Regulations requires nations to alert the Health Organization within 24 hours if a potential international public health emergency is brewing, according to the newspaper. The information Russia has provided is so far being framed as scanty.

According to the newspaper, Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, said no “microorganisms connected to her professional activities” were found on Shipilova’s body, and the WHO has said the risks beyond Russia are “very low.”

Still, experts would like to decide for themselves.

“As much transparency as possible will help calm fears of further international spread,” Hayley Severance, a former War Department adviser and an expert on global biological policy, told the newspaper.

The questions come in the context of Russia’s dabbling with biological weapons.

“Russia inherited the past offensive program of biological research and development from the Soviet Union,” a 2025 State Department report said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “The U.S. assesses that the Soviet program was absorbed, not dismantled, by the Russian Federation, and that the program has continued and evolved.”

Dr. Glenn Wortmann, at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, sought to throw cold water on panic, saying the bacteria that cause plague don’t “travel very far” and an individual would “really need to be face-to-face” with an infected individual to get pneumonic plague, according to The Associated Press.

“The chance of this spreading widely in Russia and then extending here to the U.S. will not happen, not with this type of bacteria, because it’s not spread easily and we have antibiotics to stop it from spreading,” he said.

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