Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Epistemic status: I wrote this up hoping people can poke holes in it because I am quite worried.
Here's what we've heard so far: - Local media is reporting that an employee of a BSL-3 lab in Irkutsk, Russia, died of pneumonic plague on Oct 1st.
- The initial quarantine covered 200 people who were in contact with the employee before she died.
- The FSB (Russian FBI) was seen assisting in the quarantine, which means it was not voluntary.
- Soviet-era whistleblowers like Ken Alibek claim Irkutsk was a major bioweapon development facility.
As of Oct 4th: - The quarantine has expanded to 5 hospitals in the area.
- The Russian government has switched to denial/coverup. Local news sources have deleted mentions of "pneumonic plague."
- Local universities and schools have canceled some classes and extended mask mandates.
- On the lab's website, they mention gain-of-function research for making bacteria more virulent.
- The White House is monitoring the suspected outbreak.
Why this might be a big deal - Regular pneumonic plague is maybe not that hard to deal with (?) but if it is a bioweapon that was leaked, it could be significantly more virulent than, say [...]
---
Outline:(00:18) Here's what we've heard so far:
(00:52) As of Oct 4th:
(02:06) Why this might be a big deal
(03:29) Why this might not be a big deal
---
First published:
October 5th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TYfpTRxGH9frTymwN/how-much-should-we-worry-about-the-pneumonic-plague-lableak
---
Narrated by
TYPE III AUDIO.
---
Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app. 
