U.S. monitors suspected Russian plague case as Trump plans call with Putin

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the pneumonic plague, after the death of a female staffer at a Russian anti-plague lab that’s sparked public health fears worldwide.

Asked whether he had spoken with Putin about the matter, Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that he had a “call scheduled” and that it would take place “very soon.”

On Wednesday, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied a call had been set up, saying “no substantive arrangements have been made.”

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he did not think the plague was a bioweapon. Asked whether he was getting the same “vibe” from Russia as he did from China at the start of the covid pandemic, Trump said neither country said much.

“But they do say they have it very much under control,” Trump said of Russia.

Trump had told reporters Monday that he was willing to help Russia, calling the pneumonic plague “a rough disease.”

“I hate to see them having it,” Trump said. “Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help.”

A Russian health watchdog said last week that a female staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, had died from a “pneumonia of undetermined” origin.

The woman’s mother spoke with Russian media, which identified her as Darya Shipilova.

The watchdog said that plague was not found among the staffer’s contacts tested so far, saying only that they found two cases of Covid and two of rhinovirus.

The U.S. and the World Health Organization have been leading the call for more transparency from Russia in the wake of Shipilova’s death.

“Timely, complete and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations is essential to clarify conflicting reports and enable an accurate assessment of potential public health risks,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement Tuesday.

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Earlier, the agency said Russian health officials had told it that a case of plague had not been recorded in Irkutsk. It was still waiting for information on the exact pneumonia-causing pathogen that may have led to Shipilova’s death, it added.

A State Department official told NBC News earlier Tuesday that the U.S. had been in contact with the Russian government regarding the incident since as early as Friday, following reports of Shipilova’s death.

It is “incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.

“Maybe, you know, there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know,” Rubio told reporters during a news conference in Iceland. “But I think it would be reckless at this moment, given the limited information we still have, to speculate about what this might or might not be or what this is or what this isn’t.”

The U.S. embassy in Russia issued a health alert Tuesday, saying it was following the situation closely and urging Americans in the Irkutsk region to follow guidance of local health authorities, avoid affected facilities and seek medical care promptly if they develop fever or respiratory symptoms.

“The U.S. government has limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow,” the embassy said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it was aware of and monitoring reports of the death, which it called “a suspected case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia.”

“At this time, there is no indication of a broader threat to the United States, but CDC and our interagency partners are prepared and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the CDC wrote on X.