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  robmusial
  I literally just finished Annie Jacobsen's book 'Biological War: A Scenario' last week where the central plot point is an accidental release of modified form of pneumonic plague from a lab in Siberia. Very coincidental timing, especially since it made me wonder how often labs like these have accidents and we never hear about them because it is cleaned up without issue.
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  helsinkiandrew
  So breaks a test tube of live bacteria at an “anti-plague institute”, possible infects 100 colleagues, then when she developed plague like symptoms is taken to hospital and possibly infects 100 patients.I think they need to investigate their safety protocols> She reportedly told medical staff that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria while collecting samples for testing.> At least 197 people who may have had contact with her were reportedly placed under medical isolation, including more than 100 in hospital wards.
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  ungreased0675
  Are we fairly confident that these labs do more good than the risk they present to the public? I’m not sure we should be keeping dangerous pathogens around just for giggles and PhD papers. What are examples of how the research done in these places improves public health?
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  poilcn
  This information that she "broke a tube" is tabloid bs.Non-tabloid version is that she didn't catch it in the lab, she got ill "while being on a research trip to Buryatia region near the border where sources of the disease were found".
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  chasil
  Yersinia Pestis is normally treated with doxycycline, cipro, or streptomycin.Is this a resistant strain?https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/235627-medication#1
• r721
  >Oct. 2Here's a newer CNN story from today:>Researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of ‘unknown’ infectionhttps://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/04/europe/russia-laboratory-...This post from local Irkutsk region media (now in exile) is also interesting:https://t.me/Baikal_People/16651 (in Russian)
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  abnry
  How often does this sort of thing happen? I'm guessing more than we think, either because we forget the news stories we read or because it isn't reported.
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  vova_hn2
  I've read this story before, in Russian, and, honestly, it doesn't make any sense to me.According to Wikipedia, plague responds to antibiotics very well, since it is a bacteria, not a virus and it hasn't been widespread since the development of antibiotics, so it didn't develop any resistance to antibiotics.If she knew that she broke a flask with plague (and, as I understand, she did know that), why don't start a course of antibiotics immediately, before any symptoms? Wouldn't she be totally fine it this case?
• misja111
  Of course we all agree that research on germs that can cause deadly epidemics is safe. Since after all, the Covid outbreak in Wuhan was also not caused by the research lab over there, despite the many reported accidents.
• szopa
  The Irkutsk governor, Igor Kobzev, seems to actually have experience in emergency management, and has served for many years in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. This makes the serious response a little bit less surprising (actually doing something instead of just covering it up is the thing that made me actually worried about this situation).
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  hn_throwaway_99
  > The woman was identified as Daria Sh., a 27- or 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk anti-plague institute, by the exiled news outlet Lyudi Baikala (People of Baikal) and pro-Kremlin broadcaster REN TV.> She reportedly told medical staff that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria while collecting samples for testing.This is just weird. Plague is easily treated if antibiotics are given right away. I'm shocked that an anti-plague institute wouldn't have detailed and proactive plans in case of mishaps. Obviously I think it's likely that there is more to it than what's reported in the article, but I would find it truly baffling if within 60 seconds of her breaking that test tube that protocols weren't initiated to protect her, her colleagues and the community.Of course, Russia...
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  woodpanel
  As the pro-COVID-measures-crowd largely overlaps with the Putler-crowd it’s going to be interesting to see their agenda re-alignment.When the wuhan Lab leak happened in 2019 most of my direct and indirect mainland china contacts were more or less 100% sure that this was intentionally leaked by the regime, and even if it wasn’t, that the regime is going to milk it internally (vs dissent) and externally (vs the west). Especially given that this happened just a few months after the Hong Kong protest crackdowns.The western center-left didn’t want to acknowledge any of this until it became politically feasible for their own gain and this alone cost us roughly the first three months of properly responding.Let’s see if and how they’ll going to put their political shenanigans before their countrymen this time. I fear, with all the division they sewed it is almost certainly going lure them to double down on “Covidiots”.
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  TZubiri
  >Irkutsk region Governor Igor Kobzev urged the public to remain calm after meeting with Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova to coordinate emergency containment measures.>“All identified contact persons have been placed under medical observation. As of today, the contacts show no signs of illness, and their laboratory test results are negative,”Why is the knee jerk reaction of authority figures to say everything is fine? Be it epidemic risk, or cybersecurity incidents, the spokepeople always output noise in the form of "everything is fine", there's almost no signal
• tokamak
  [dead]
• aaron695
  [dead]
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  Freedom2
  Thankfully I still have a decent supply of ivermectin from HNs guidance during COVID.
• chvid
  Sounds cartoon-like and unbelievable.