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RUSSIAN PLAGUE A (more) Innocent Explanation A lot remains unresolved about the recent death of a Russian disease researcher, but there are some things that are becoming clear to us. THE Black Death? Here, the Russian official response says everything. THEY Clearly think it's Plague. You don't quarantine c. 200 people - In Place! - and try to bury the story, over the flu. And we see no reason to doubt this. The woman who died worked at a facility that handled plague, and apparently worked with it herself. Oddities This is where things get strange. Plague is quite succeptable to relatively unsophisticated antibiotics, with no significant demonstration of resistance - but Only if they are administered quickly. Time Matters. And a biological researcher, especially one used dealing with that particular pathogen, would know that. So How is it she managed to die anyway? This is why we are skeptical of the 'lab leak theory' in this case. If she was anywhere Near a lab accident, she would have been observed, and at the first hint of symptoms, she would have been carpet-bombed with gentamycin. So what did happen? Explanations We can offer two. First of all, Russia is a nation at war - and things are not going well. It is quite conceivable that a provincial capital like Irkutsk might be low on pharmaceuticals we take for granted in the West. More importantly, there is Every reason to suspect she did Not contract the disease in the lab. She was a researcher, and that might well imply field work. In central Asia, that could mean multi-day trips out into remote areas to trap marmots, and check them for infection. This tracks well with rumors that she was "travelling" when she fell ill. If she were bitten by an infected flea on such an expedition, and they did not have the requisite antibiotics with them (see above), precious hours might pass before she got back to where she could receive proper treatment - and by then it could have been too late.