US weighs response to possible Russian plague outbreak as Rubio urges transparency

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Tuesday for greater transparency from Russia regarding the pneumonia death of a lab technician at a plague research facility, stating U.S. officials are monitoring the situation "very closely, hour by hour." The technician, 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, worked at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Irkutsk, Siberia, where plague occurs naturally in wild animals. Russian health officials say they tested her contacts and found no dangerous pathogens, while the WHO estimates the risk as moderate to low for Irkutsk and very low for the broader European region. Russia has not requested WHO assistance in determining the cause of death, and the pathogen has not been publicly identified. President Donald Trump called it a "big problem for Russia" but noted he had not spoken to President Vladimir Putin, while an infectious disease expert said the bacteria does not spread easily and antibiotics can stop it.