Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. is tracking reports of a suspected plague incident in Russia but refused to sound an “alarm” just yet.
Trump Admin Keeping an Eye on Russia Incident
Marco told reporters that the administration is “monitoring” the incident “closely,” while adding that travel between the U.S. and Russia remains “limited.”
“I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on. And we’re doing that,” he stated.
Russia Incident Triggers Unease
The White House is watching developments after a laboratory worker died in Russia’s Siberia region after reportedly breaking a test tube containing Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague.
Russian authorities placed almost 200 contacts of the worker under medical observation. Subsequent testing detected two cases of COVID-19 and two rhinovirus infections, with no evidence of plague.
Prediction Market Rules Out Pandemic in 2026
Betting crowd on Polygon (CRYPTO: POL)-based Polymarket currently assigns only a 3% chance of the World Health Organization declaring a plague epidemic in 2026.
Moreover, the odds of a new confirmed pneumonic plague case in Russia by the end of October stood at 21%, down from 30% the day before.
The contract excludes the worker whose death sparked the scare in the first place.
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