Plague News is an independent, automated monitor of the plague outbreak that began in Shelekhov, Irkutsk region, Russia, on 1 October 2026, overseen by its editor, Amos Weiskopf. It reads the news in 66 languages every 15 minutes, checks each report and links to it.
Russia's account can't be checked from outside, and several things on the record don't fit it well.
Quoted in Newsweek (2 articles).
Quotes the editor on why the cause of death is still officially unknown.
This lack of public information about the case has raised questions, according to Amos Weiskopf, editor of Plague News. “She worked at a plague institute, where plague can be tested for within hours,” Weiskopf told Newsweek. “Four days after her death the official cause is still ‘unknown origin', and no other cause has been named.”
But Weiskopf said that despite the watchdog’s assessment that no microorganisms were found on the patient linked to her work, it hasn't published the results "and still gives the diagnosis as pneumonia of unknown origin.”
Quotes the editor on what can and cannot be checked in Russia's account, and what would test it.
However, Amos Weiskopf, editor of Plague News, which tracks media reports of the disease, told Newsweek on Tuesday: “Russia's account can't be checked from outside, and several things on the record don't fit it well.”
“None of it can be checked,” said Weiskopf, from Plague News, “the websites of Rospotrebnadzor and the Irkutsk regional government refuse connections from outside Russia.” "It says tests on the woman found no microorganisms linked to her work, but it doesn't publish the results and still gives the diagnosis as pneumonia of unknown origin. Moscow blamed the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak on bad meat until 1992, so their word alone isn't enough,” Weiskopf added
Weiskopf pointed out that to be fair to the official account, the most testable claim is that none of the roughly 200 contacts had fallen ill or tested positive. “The WHO puts plague's incubation at one to seven days, so if that still holds by the end of this week, onward spread from her looks unlikely, whatever killed her,” Weiskopf added.
"The response doesn't look like ordinary pneumonia," Weiskopf noted.
Questions and interviews: editor@plaguenews.com (Amos Weiskopf, editor).
What you can use, free with credit (CC BY 4.0): the reported figures with how many reports agree; a timeline of facts with their status and sources; every report checked, in every language; what Russian authorities published on their own sites, kept as first seen, with later edits; and the knowledge base of every fact the credible reports state, with the words each rests on. Take them from Data and citation or the API; How this works says what is checked and how.
Figures are what news reports say, not official statistics. The summary at the top of the page is machine-written from the reports and says so; the figures are not.
Plague News, "Plague outbreak in Irkutsk region, Russia", updated 6 October 2026, 23:01 UTC, https://plaguenews.com/