The monitor · All editor's notes
Editor's note, opinion
Saturday 17 October 2026, published .
Russian health authorities now say the death of an anti-plague institute employee in Siberia was linked to pneumonia of unknown origin1, and that she worked at that institute2. No independent source has confirmed this. We do not take Moscow's word on it, because Russian authorities have concealed outbreaks before, and a pneumonia finding that cannot be checked is worth no more than a plague finding that cannot be checked.
The World Health Organization says it still receives none of the information it has asked Russia for about the Irkutsk outbreak3. It has also asked why 200 people were quarantined if Moscow denies a plague case4, and 200 people were placed in quarantine5. That question does not settle whether this was a localised laboratory accident or a wider failure of containment, but it shows how much the official account leaves out.
Iran's health authorities deny recording any plague case6. We read that denial with scepticism, because it comes with no evidence either way. Donald Trump's remarks about raising the case with Putin were made on 6 October7, so they add nothing new today8. A Chinese video's claims about people leaving the area are unverified9, and so is its claim that about 6,400 of them were foreigners10.
On social media the mood has turned towards distrust of officials, and most posts we read doubt the Russian account. Laboratory test results have still not been published, and we have no fact that says which strain, if any, was found.
What to watch: whether Russia supplies the information WHO has asked for, whether any independent source confirms the pneumonia finding, and whether the test results appear.
As always, we are impatiently waiting for the necessity for this site’s existence to die out already. Last thing we want is another, deadlier pandemic. Fuck the clicks.
Long live humanity.
- The editor, Amos Weiskopf
Earlier: 14 Oct, Lab death still unexplained, and today's news changes little