Coincidence? 666 Russia Plague Link, Another Victim, 2014 Repeat, Deleted Intel…Here’s What You Don’

By Lisa Haven

Prepare to have your mind blown, because there is a lot surfacing right now regarding what is going on in Russia with this so-called pneumonic plague incident. Russia is saying that is not what happened and that what was involved was some kind of unknown or unspecified pneumonia. But at the same time, there are rumors, speculation and some really bizarre connections spreading across the internet, including a strange “666” link to the timing of the event. The Daily Mail is also reporting claims of a potential second victim who died, while other information connected to the story has reportedly been disappearing from the internet.

Before going any further, there is something important that needs to be said: there is a lot of fear being pushed around this story, and I am not telling anyone that it is time to panic. It isn’t. This is something we need to watch and continue monitoring, but I am not going to jump the gun and tell everybody they should be terrified when we still do not have all the information. What I want to do is give you what we know, what is being claimed, what remains speculation, and some of the very strange questions surrounding this entire situation.

The original reporting that helped launch this story came from The Moscow Times. Despite the name, The Moscow Times is not currently based in Moscow. It is a Russian-focused news organization operating out of Amsterdam after moving operations following restrictions imposed by Russia. That is worth keeping in mind when looking at where some of these claims originated. We have a news organization reporting on an alleged incident inside Russia while operating outside the country, at a time when tensions involving Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the United States remain extremely high.

Meanwhile, Russia is telling the World Health Organization that there are no confirmed plague cases associated with the Siberian city where a laboratory worker at a plague research institute reportedly died. According to Reuters, Russian authorities told the WHO that no cases of the dangerous disease had been recorded and that people who had contact with the deceased had been identified and tested. Those tests reportedly came back negative for dangerous infectious pathogens. However, Reuters noted that it could not immediately establish whether those statements meant the deceased laboratory worker herself had been definitively tested in a way that ruled out plague in her specific case.

That leaves us in a strange position. Russia is saying there is no plague outbreak, yet other reports are painting a much more dramatic picture. The Daily Mail reported claims that a second person may have died after allegedly contracting plague in the region. That second death has not been independently confirmed. The report also alleges that Russian media stories about the situation have disappeared, including reports from television outlets and newspapers.

There were also reports that officials in a nearby city briefly warned residents against traveling into the affected district, only for that warning to later disappear. Other circulating claims include roughly 200 people being quarantined, workers at an aluminum facility being ordered to wear masks, dozens of employees remaining inside an institute, and local officials discouraging travel into the area. Again, some of these details remain allegations rather than confirmed facts.

The Kremlin has urged the public to trust information coming from Russia’s official health agencies rather than rumors and speculation. But that creates another problem, because governments around the world have not exactly earned unlimited public trust over the last several years. After everything people experienced during COVID-19, many understandably want independent reporting and additional evidence before simply accepting an official statement.

There are even websites attempting to track the situation, although at this point the information still appears to point to only one confirmed death connected to the original story. The alleged second death remains unconfirmed.

One of the things that raises questions for me is the original story surrounding the laboratory worker. The idea is that someone working inside a highly secure infectious disease facility, reportedly associated historically with biological weapons research, somehow experienced an accident involving plague material, left the facility, became sick and eventually died. You would expect a situation involving something as dangerous as plague to immediately trigger decontamination, quarantine and preventative antibiotics. Instead, according to the early version of the story, she supposedly left the facility and later became sick.

That does not automatically mean something sinister happened, but it certainly creates questions.

At the same time, we need to be extremely careful about what is circulating online. There are people on social media claiming entire cities have been locked down. There is currently no solid confirmation of anything resembling the massive lockdown scenario some accounts are describing. Video coming from portions of the region also does not necessarily match some of the most extreme descriptions being shared online. There are still no confirmed widespread plague cases.

There is also some historical context that should ease at least some fears. Pneumonic plague is serious, but it is not some completely unknown disease that modern medicine has never dealt with. The CDC documented an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Colorado in 2014 involving transmission connected to an infected dog. The owner became extremely ill with fever and bloody coughing, and doctors initially believed he had pneumonia. His condition worsened, and the bacterial infection was initially misidentified, delaying the correct diagnosis.

Eventually, investigators confirmed infection with Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for plague. The patient was treated with antibiotics and ultimately recovered after a lengthy hospitalization.

Investigators later identified several additional infected people associated with exposure to the dog. Based on the timing of one patient’s illness, the CDC determined that human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out. Health authorities identified more than 100 potentially exposed individuals and recommended preventative antibiotics for many of them. No additional cases emerged.

That is important because if what happened in Russia really is ordinary pneumonic plague, we already know that it can be treated with antibiotics when diagnosed quickly enough, and we have seen health authorities successfully contain outbreaks before.

But there are researchers asking why Russia’s reported response appears to have been so extensive if this was simply a routine plague infection.

One of those researchers is Kevin Esvelt, an MIT professor whose work involves biotechnology, gene editing and biosecurity. Esvelt has publicly raised questions about reports of hospital quarantines, involvement by Russia’s FSB security service and alleged hazmat precautions following the death of the researcher. His argument is essentially that such an aggressive response would seem unusual for an ordinary laboratory-acquired plague infection that could normally be treated with antibiotics.

He has suggested several possibilities worth examining, not conclusions. One possibility is that the pathogen involved was not plague at all. Another possibility he raised is that authorities feared some form of antibiotic resistance. Neither theory has been proven.

Esvelt has also questioned why, if Russian authorities have identified or sequenced whatever pathogen was involved, they have not publicly identified it. If Russia is correct that testing has found no organism connected to the woman’s laboratory work, that creates another obvious question: what exactly caused a previously healthy 28-year-old researcher to develop a fatal pneumonia-like illness?

Again, none of that proves there is some engineered pathogen spreading through Russia. It does mean that there are unanswered questions.

There is also the issue of normal laboratory protocol. If the researcher was working around plague, was she vaccinated? Was she given antibiotics after a suspected exposure? Were normal containment protocols followed? If those precautions were followed and she still died, researchers understandably want to know why. If they were not followed, then why weren’t they?

Those are legitimate questions, and asking them is not the same thing as claiming we already know the answer.

That is where I think people need to remain level-headed. If authorities eventually announce that this was some manipulated strain that is resistant to antibiotics, obviously we would have a much larger problem. But we are nowhere near having confirmation of that right now. It could still turn out to be much closer to Russia’s explanation.

There is also another possibility people should remember: information warfare is very real. The original story was amplified by a Russia-focused outlet operating outside Russia during an active geopolitical confrontation. That does not mean the reporting is false. It does mean we should scrutinize everything from every side before reaching conclusions. Russia has reasons to minimize embarrassing information, but Russia’s opponents can also have reasons to amplify damaging stories.

Then came comments from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressing the situation. Rubio was asked directly whether there was any reason to believe the incident could have involved the accidental release of an intentionally modified plague strain. His response was cautious. He said that anytime someone hears about a disease infecting a worker inside a laboratory, especially given what the world experienced several years ago, there is reason for concern.

But Rubio also said it would be irresponsible to speculate while the United States still lacks sufficient information. He called on Russia to share more information with the international community and said multiple U.S. and international agencies were watching the situation closely. He essentially acknowledged the same thing many of us are saying: maybe there is nothing larger going on, maybe there is something more serious, but right now we simply do not know.

That is exactly why Russia needs to be transparent and tell the world what happened.

Unfortunately, we learned the hard way during COVID that once critical information becomes politicized, getting straight answers can become extremely difficult. Hopefully, officials are asking the right questions now instead of waiting years to investigate them.

And then there are the strange coincidences circulating online.

One of the most bizarre involves the number 666. A claim circulating online points out that California issued its first statewide COVID stay-at-home order on March 19, 2020. Six years, six months and six days later lands on September 25, 2026 — the date cited in some reports for the alleged laboratory accident associated with the Russian incident.