Russia claims it has ‘plague’ under control, Trump says as Don thinks it’s not a bioweapon & doesn’t rule out lab ‘leak’

RUSSIA has claimed it has a suspected case of pneumonic plague that killed a lab worker in Siberia “under control”, Donald Trump said. Scientist Darya Shipilova, 28, died on Friday after being struck down with pneumonia of an unknown cause – she reportedly caught the deadly disease from a broken test tube. The US president said he would “find out” from Putin about the death after he was asked if it was the result of “a bioweapon”. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday: “We don’t think so.” “We’re gonna find out soon enough, but we don’t think so, and if you listen to them, it’s under control.” After reporters compared the lack of information coming out of Putin’s dictatorship about the disease to China’s initial Covid response, Trump said: “Well China didn’t say much, and Russia‘s not saying much either, but they do say they have it very much under control.” read more in world news The US president did not rule out the chance of a disease leaking from the remote Siberian lab. He said he was planning to call Putin that evening, on the ageing tyrant’s 74th birthday. The White House is on high alert after the scientist’s death from suspected bubonic plague sparked fears of a global outbreak. Hundreds are in quarantine, hospitals have been shut down and public events have been cancelled amid growing concerns that Vladimir Putin is covering up the case. Most read in The Sun Hundreds are in quarantine, hospitals have been shut down and public events were cancelled in the Eastern European country. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced last night it was probing reports of a second case. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the global health body has sought answers from Russia following “reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause”. It comes after unverified reports from Russian media claimed a second person had died of the plague in Russia’s Irkutsk region. The US embassy in Russia warned Americans about the threat of plague and urged them to leave the territory “immediately”. It comes amid reports that the US government is growing increasingly frustrated by Moscow’s failure to disclose more details on the researcher’s death. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned the information from Russia was “still quite limited”. “Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know”, he added. What is the bubonic plague? BUBNOIC plague is a serious disease caused by bacteria (Yersinia pestis) that lives inside fleas riding on wild rodents like rats. Once bitten, the bacteria travel into your lymph nodes – small glands in your neck, armpits, and groin that normally fight off illness. Key symptoms of bubonic plague are swelling in those glands, which turn into massive, painful, egg-sized lumps called “buboes” (which is how the disease gets its name). Unlike pneumonic plague (which settles in the lungs and spreads through cough sprays in the air), bubonic plague stays mainly in the lymph system and cannot usually jump directly from person to person through coughing. Back in the Middle Ages – when it was known as the Black Death – it killed millions because doctors had no cure, but today simple modern antibiotics clear it up quickly if caught early. A State Department spokesperson confirmed it has “officially requested additional information from the Russian government”. Fears of a plague outbreak ignited last week when scientist Shipilova died after being exposed to what some outlets reported to be the plague. She reportedly told medical staff she had accidentally broken a test tube holding live bacteria at Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute. The scientist then became ill while on an expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, near Russia‘s eastern border with Mongolia. But Russian health authorities initially failed to confirm Daria’s death, sparking fears of a cover-up. Russian officials said they have found no evidence her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with, but media reports suggest she may have died of pneumonic plague. They also claimed a probe found no accidents involving dangerous pathogens and a broken test-tube at the high-security laboratory. The country’s consumer welfare service said the “sanitary-epidemiological situation” in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov was “stable”. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared Tuesday it is seeking further information on the Russian case. But the risk to the wider UK population is considered to be “very low”, UKHSA added. Putin’s chief infectious diseases doctor Anna Popova rushed 2,600 miles from Moscow to Irkutsk in Siberia to take personal charge of the emergency – but has remained silent. Health chiefs broke their silence on Tuesday and claimed the scientist had a mystery strain of pneumonia. She had been diagnosed with a “pneumonia of unknown origin” before her death, medical authorities claimed. Russian officials say those who came into contact with the researcher all tested negative for pneumonic plague. Reports say 189 people are in isolation – 114 are in one hospital, 63 in another, and another 12 are at the Anti-Plague Research Institute. At least five nearby hospitals are reportedly shut and public events have been axed. Relatives have been barred from wards with claims medical staff are privately “talking about plague” even though it has not officially been diagnosed.