JONATHAN M.METSCH, Dr.P.H. –Tracking Emerging Public Health Challenges – October 7, 2026– PLAGUE
“CDC Director Erica Schwartz on Wednesday said the Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Department of Defense and other agencies are monitoring travelers on flights from Siberi a and that a health station has been set up at JFK Airport in New York City, where most flights from the region arrive.
Speaking at a Wall Street Journal event Wednesday, Schwartz said her agency is “very confident that the threat to the United States is extremely low.”” (1)
“Global health officials – as well as the world’s media – have been particularly alert to pneumonia cases of undetermined cause since the COVID-19 pandemic, which began with a cluster of fast-spreading fatal respiratory illness in China.
However, the cause of individual pneumonia cases can often not be determined.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Erica Schwartz said at an event the agency was prepared to monitor and screen travelers although the risk to the US was extremely low.
The WHO initially said it estimated the risk of the Russia case to the public as low, based on what had been made known, but told a press conference on Wednesday it could not make a fuller risk assessment due to insufficient information from the Russian authorities.
Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, said on Wednesday it was winding down precautionary measures it had put in place after concluding there was no risk of an epidemic and that it had shared its latest information with the WHO.
No cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with the deceased worker, Darya Shipilova, it said, and 90% of those placed in quarantine had been released after nearly 5,000 lab tests had failed to detect any dangerous pathogens.” (2)
“We don’t know exactly how this person died,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the department of epidemic and pandemic management of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told reporters on Wednesday. “We know that she had pneumonia. We know it was a fatal case. We understand that some laboratory tests have been done. They haven’t found the causative agent, that we know, and so this is why we need more information.” (3)
What to Know About the Fears of a Plague Outbreak in Russia, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/world/europe/russia-plague-fears-what-to-know.
Experts explain how Russia’s terrifying plague investigation could impact Calif., By Gillian Mohney, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/russian-plague-california-risk-22465808.php
What is the pneumonic plague?, https://www.npr.org/2026/10/07/g-s1-146952/pneumonic-plague-russia-siberia-lab-death
“The unexplained death of a researcher at a Russian anti-plague institute has one former senior U.S. arms official warning it could be ‘far worse’ than the bacteria that caused the Black Death.
Marshall Billingslea, who served as President Donald Trump’s special presidential envoy for arms control, said a top Soviet bioweapons defector told him decades ago about secret work on antibiotic-resistant plague at the same facility where the recent plague-related death occurred.
“This may not be just ‘the plague.’ It may be far worse,” Billingslea wrote on X.” (4)
1.Trump Says Russia Claims Plague Scare ‘Very Much Under Control’ As CDC Monitors Travelers, By Siladitya Ray, Antonio Pequeño IV and Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2026/10/07/trump-says-russia-claims-plague-scare-very-much-under-control-as-cdc-monitors-travelers/
2.Russia says plague institute worker’s death does not risk an epidemic, By Andrew Osborn and Jennifer Rigby, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-seeks-details-russia-media-reports-a-second-lab-worker-with-pneumonia-2026-10-07/
3.WHO officials say unclear how Russia plague lab worker died, call for more information, By Othon Leyva and Mary Kekatos, https://abcnews.com/Health/officials-unclear-russia-plague-lab-worker-died-call/story?id=137032253
4.Russian researcher’s mystery death could be ‘far worse’ than the plague, former senior Trump official warns, by Morgan Phillips, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/russian-researchers-mystery-death-could-be-far-worse-than-plague-former-senior-trump-official-warns
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai