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“We don’t think so. We’re going to find out soon enough, but we don’t think so,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if a bioweapon was involved in the death of the Irkutsk lab worker, adding that Moscow insists it has the situation under control: “If you listen to them, it’s under control. But you know, people have said that before about other things.” Trump likened Russia’s reticence to China’s early Covid response, reiterated that he has a phone call scheduled with Vladimir Putin on the matter, and noted, “Today is Vladimir Putin’s birthday.”
The Guardian on Wednesday identified the deceased worker as Darya Shipilova, 28, and reported that the WHO has asked Russia to address unconfirmed media reports of a second institute employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause. Tedros said the agency is waiting for Moscow’s answer. WHO pandemic chief Maria Van Kerkhove said the agency still does not know how Shipilova became infected or with what, and asked, if pneumonic plague is ruled out, what she actually died of. Russian authorities deny any link between the institute and her death, describing it as pneumonia of an unknown aetiology, and say the region’s epidemiological situation is stable.
Earlier
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday the agency has asked Russia for more information on the death of a 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, who died last week of severe pneumonia after what media reports suggested could have been a lab exposure to plague. Moscow told the WHO on Tuesday that no plague had been reported in the Irkutsk region and that about 200 contacts had been quarantined, with no dangerous pathogens found among them.
The WHO’s initial risk assessment puts the public risk at moderate to low for Irkutsk, low for Russia and very low for the wider European region. The cause of death remains officially unconfirmed, and the agency says it will update its assessment as more information arrives.