▶ Watch Video: WHO questions Russia: “If plague is ruled out, what did she actually die from?”
Russia’s government said Wednesday that it was open to “promptly” scheduling a phone call between Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin to discuss the still-unexplained death of a plague research center employee, but that nothing had been scheduled yet.
Mr. Trump told reporters Tuesday night that he expected to speak with Putin “very soon” about the Oct. 2 death of the Siberian lab worker, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Moscow to be more transparent about the incident and to “share more information with the world.”
A State Department spokesperson later told CBS News the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had “engaged Russian authorities about the reported death” and “asked for additional information,” which it encouraged Russia to share “quickly and transparently.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told CBS News on Thursday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was “closely monitoring the situation” and had implemented measures “to identify and assess travelers arriving from the affected region.”
The HHS spokesmperson said only about 200 people typically arrive in the U.S. from the Russian region in a year, and they “arrive at designated airports where CDC personnel are already positioned and prepared to identify potential health concerns, conduct public health assessments, and take appropriate action when warranted.”
So far, Russian authorities have only offered “pneumonia of unknown origin” as the cause of Darya Shipilova’s death. Shipilova, 28, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, more than 2,500 miles east of Moscow, and initial Russian media reports — some of which were quickly taken down — suggested she had contracted the pneumonic plague after a lab accident and died of the disease.
The United Nations World Health Organization called Wednesday on Russia’s national health watchdog agency, Rospotrebnadzor, to provide more information about Shipilova’s death, and the Russian body said it had provided further details.
In a statement, Rospotrebnadzor said it was easing precautionary measures that were put in place in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, where the lab is located, after determining there was no risk of an epidemic connected to Shipilova’s death. It said no cases of plague were detected among the 200 people screened after coming into contact with her, and that 90% of those who had been put under quarantine conditions for monitoring had been released.
The agency said it had conducted nearly 5,000 lab tests of those individuals and that none of them had detected dangerous pathogens.
Rospotrebnadzor’s statement added that Shipilova had been vaccinated against the dangerous infections she worked with, so she had immunity to them.
But despite the reassurances from Russia’s government, the lack of any clear explanation for Shiplova’s death has left rumors to swirl about what might have killed her, and what work might be underway at the Russian research center.
According to its website, the Irkutsk anti-plague lab’s work extends beyond research on the well-known bacteria, which is present in animal populations in the region, as it is in other parts of the world, to include planning and preparation on how to deal with incidents involving “potential agents of bioterrorism.”
In other words, the center is involved in Russia’s planning for how to respond to potential biological attacks. Reports in Chinese and Western media this week have noted collaboration between the facility’s director – who has also visited U.S. research facilities – and Chinese authorities, including participation in a “joint emergency drill” to practice for a theoretical “cross-border infectious disease epidemic” in August.
Irkutsk lab was previously a “cover for a biological weapons facility”
Annie Jacobsen, an American journalist and author of “Biological War,” a fictional story about a hypothetical engineered pathogen – a pneumonic plague – accidentally breaking out of a lab in Siberia that was published just a few months ago, said the scenario is what military experts are “most worried about.”
When it comes to “the accidental release of a genetically modified pathogen from a high or maximum containment laboratory around the world,” she told CBS News, “the number-one worry is Russia.”
“During the 80s and before, Russia had a very robust, illegal biological weapons program,” Jacobsen said. “The facility in Irkutsk, which is in question right now, was a dual use facility, meaning, yes, it was doing what it purportedly did — which was create medical countermeasures against dangerous pathogens — but it was also a cover for a biological weapons facility.”
She told CBS News all the scrutiny Russia has drawn this week is due not only to the reports by independent media of Shipiova dying of a possible plague infection, but also to”the quarantine of some 200 people” under what she said were “draconian measures.”
The real indicator, according to Jacobsen, of a serious problem in Irkutsk will be any confirmed secondary infections.
The WHO said Wednesday that it had requested more information after some media reports suggested a possible second infection in the area, but nothing has been confirmed so far.
Russians relaxed, but not their neighbors
Lyudi Baikala, an independent Russian news outlet that was among the first to break the news of Shipilova’s death, and to say it could have been a plague infection, quoted a colleague of Shipilova’s on Tuesday as saying her illness began with cold symptoms before worsening rapidly.
After she was hospitalized, about 200 colleagues were reportedly quarantined at the research institute for three days, and tested twice daily before being released.
Residents of her apartment building have told Russian media that a van arrived on the night she died. They said people who appeared to be from the national health agency, wearing gas masks and orange protective suits, sprayed the building’s entrance with a substance residents assumed was antiseptic.
Tight controls on information in Russia make independent verification of events difficult, but reporters with the French news agency AFP visited Irkutsk on Tuesday and said residents were going about their lives, and those who agreed to be interviewed said they were not worried, “because they [authorities] said there haven’t been any confirmed cases, and people who’ve been in contact with infected individuals have been isolated, and nothing’s happened [to them].”
But until Russia offers more definitive answers about what killed Shipilova, Moscow is likely to continue facing questions – and its neighbors may not be as willing to accept its reassurances.
As of Wednesday, authorities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan had all confirmed the implementation of additional precautionary measures at their borders with Russia, to guard against the possible spread of infectious diseases.
