Russian ‘lab leak’ aside, it’s Trump’s sketchy approach to it all that’s worrying

A laboratory employee in Irkutsk, Siberia, has died after severe pneumonia, and the possibility that a lab accident involving plague bacteria was to blame has drawn attention abroad. Russian authorities call it pneumonia of unknown origin and say testing found no tie to the dangerous pathogens she handled. Unconfirmed reports suggest she may have broken a test tube holding the plague bacterium. The woman was 28 and worked at the city's anti-plague institute. Her hospital is under quarantine, roughly 200 contacts are reportedly being observed, and local media say about 60 people are locked inside the institute, according to The Independent.

Pneumonic plague spreads through respiratory droplets but is bacterial, usually responds to prompt antibiotic treatment, and requires very close contact to transmit. Simon Clarke, a microbiology professor at the University of Reading, notes that escapes from labs do happen but infections among staff are uncommon, and that a worker getting sick this way would mean a great deal went wrong.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that he is watching developments and does not view them as alarming.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →