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IMA Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs Dr. Ryan Cole joined NTD anchor Tiffany Meier to discuss the death of a 28-year-old worker at a Russian anti-plague research institute. Dr. Cole, a pathologist, points out that plague hasn’t actually been confirmed. Testing has been negative so far, which can happen after antibiotics, and he believes she more likely picked up an infection during field research than inside a contained lab with proper protective equipment.
Dr. Cole agrees that Russian transparency would help scientists study the strain involved, but he sees no reason for alarm. Plague rarely spreads between people, causes about 400 deaths worldwide each year, and is carried by rodents across the desert West, including near his home in Idaho. His advice is to stay vigilant, not worried, and to get all the facts before drawing conclusions.
Read IMA’s response to the story, Plague in Russia? After COVID, Americans Don’t Know Whom to Believe, and That Should Alarm Everyone, and stay tuned to our coverage as our experts cut through the noise to bring you the real facts. The full segment transcript follows below.
Transcript
Tiffany Meier: Welcome back. The president this afternoon saying he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin, quote, “very soon” to discuss the death of a lab worker last week in Russia. The employee at an anti-plague research institute in Russia died Friday. Russian authorities saying the 28-year-old woman had pneumonia of an unknown cause. The Centers for Disease Control says a suspected pneumonic plague case remains unconfirmed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio today encouraging Russian transparency.
Marco Rubio: We’re glad to be aware of it. We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour. We have multiple agencies, not just in the United States but internationally, that are watching it. We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world so that all of us could react accordingly and appropriately. But we’ll have to make those decisions on the basis of the information that we’re learning and are being provided. And so far, that’s still quite limited, but hopefully that will change in the next few hours and days.
Tiffany Meier: Russia’s health watchdog says no plague cases were detected among the victim’s contacts. It also says testing found no microorganisms in her body linked to her work. The CDC saying plague is treatable with antibiotics, particularly when caught and treated early. It says there’s no indication of a broader threat to the United States at this time, and it will continue monitoring the situation. Joining us now is Dr. Ryan Cole, pathologist and Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs for the Independent Medical Alliance. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us. It’s great to see you. Now, based on the information we do have, in your view, what is going on in the Russia anti-plague lab?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Well, I think there is a lot of confusion. I think we’re drowning in information and starving for wisdom. And my sympathies go out to Daria’s family and friends. We don’t really know what she passed away from. She had a severe pneumonia and passed quickly, obviously. But the testing was confusing and negative, as far as we know. If one receives antibiotics, those tests can be negative. So we don’t even know that she died from plague. And we do know that of the 200 people that were quarantined, 60 percent of those have been released already.
Tiffany Meier: And while the bubonic plague is more well known, break down for us, though, what is pneumonic plague, and how dangerous is it?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Certainly. So there are three forms of plague. Bubonic is the one that we heard about from the Middle Ages that killed millions in Europe. That’s where one gets a flea bite, usually from a rodent, and gets swelling of the lymph nodes. The other form is septicemic plague, where one gets it in the blood and it spreads throughout the body very quickly. Pneumonic is simply an infection of the lungs, or a pneumonia, caused by this same bacteria.
Tiffany Meier: All right. And how important is it for Russia to share this early information with the international community, particularly the U.S.?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Well, I think transparency is always a good thing. This is a laboratory purported to be a preventative laboratory and not a bioweapons laboratory. We can certainly have our conjectures. But they study plague because it’s endemic in that region. Across the border in Mongolia, a lot of the rodents, the marmots, the pikas, do carry plague. And so in that region, they study plague and the different strains and varieties of plague.
It’s not transmitted person to person. This bacteria is not aerosolized. There are just rare cases where it’s transmitted in droplets. There are about 2,000-plus confirmed cases around the entire world each year and about 400 deaths, and 98% of those are in Madagascar or in the Congo. So they’re a tracking laboratory and a research laboratory. And like I said, it’s important that information is shared just so people are aware.
However, this was in a contained laboratory with proper equipment, proper suits, proper respiration. I highly doubt that she even acquired it in the laboratory. The rumor out there from a local governor was that a test tube was broken, but that went out on Telegram. We don’t even have that confirmed. Chances are better that she was doing field research and perhaps picked it up in the field.
Tiffany Meier: And with what we do or don’t know, do you worry that Russia could be withholding critical information?
Dr. Ryan Cole: That’s always the question. It’s certainly a possibility. I think, look, we have bioweapons research laboratories here in the United States. Many nations, unfortunately, still do. I think transparency would be good. I don’t think people should be worried. This isn’t something that can be spread.
Where I live here in the southwest desert region of Idaho, and much of the desert Southwest and western desert areas, it’s not uncommon to be carried by rodents here. Do I ever worry about it? I don’t. One has to be in contact with the fleas, with the rodents, or with a dead animal. And I think transparency would be good, and that way we could study the genetics of the particular strain with which Daria was infected. But I don’t think this is something that people need to put front and center on their personal health radar.
Tiffany Meier: And on that note, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says travel between Russia and the United States is already very limited. And this afternoon, the State Department reaffirmed its Level 4 Do Not Travel advisory for Russia and urged U.S. citizens there to leave immediately. Given the State Department’s latest warning, what is your level of concern about where this situation could be headed?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Well, I think the important thing is, to their credit, their research laboratory is in a very remote area of Siberia. So this isn’t even near population centers and doesn’t bring the travel issue to the forefront. And so the concern’s there. It’s up to the individual American who’s there whether or not they want to leave the area. But it doesn’t seem like it’s in a high-risk area, per se.
Tiffany Meier: And looking back at the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, whose early response was criticized for a lack of transparency, what lessons should we apply to this situation?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Well, I think they’ve already taken appropriate steps and isolated the contacts and done testing on those who were in contact with the victim. And so I think there’s been a lot of prudent behavior thus far. I think we need to be vigilant, however, not worried. And in a case like this, isolate it where it occurred.
And again, we don’t even know that it was plague yet at this point. It was an unusual pneumonia and a very rapid one, which would correlate with that. And she does work in a laboratory where that is researched. But there are other organisms that are researched in that laboratory, including anthrax, cholera, and brucellosis. Is it one of those, perhaps?
So I just don’t think there’s reason for alarm. Certainly concern, just to get the accurate information and the transparency and the scientific information. But at the same time, I think alarmism and fear mess up our immune system and could make one more susceptible to anything. So I think we just need to get all the information before we draw any alarming conclusions.
Tiffany Meier: Oh, we definitely don’t want that. Now, President Trump has said the United States is ready to help. What kind of assistance could the U.S. realistically provide here?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Well, realistically, experts in this area could be called upon to add their research acumen to the different testing protocols. This laboratory is a fairly advanced laboratory as is, and has already done a lot of testing. And they have, from what I understand, around 1,800 or 2,000 strains they’ve been researching. So just bringing in the testing expertise would most likely be the benefit that we could add in that regard.
Tiffany Meier: Well, Dr. Ryan Cole, as always, thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Ryan Cole: My pleasure. Thank you.
