Trump schedules Putin call as suspected plague death in Siberia rattles Washington

President Trump said Tuesday that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin "very soon" about the death of a plague scientist in Siberia, and that the US government will be able to share more information Wednesday. "So far we are in very deep discussions," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We will be able to report about it probably tomorrow."

The dead woman is Daria Shipilova, 28, a lab technician at the anti plague research institute in Irkutsk, Siberia. She died Friday in a hospital outside Irkutsk of what officials called pneumonia of unknown etiology. She had reportedly broken a test tube containing a deadly pathogen days earlier and may have contracted pneumonic plague, the lung infecting form of the disease that can spread from person to person through respiration.

Washington is treating the reports with open alarm. The US Embassy in Moscow issued a health alert Tuesday stating that "US citizens currently in Russia should depart immediately," and warning that the US government has "limited ability to help" Americans in Russia, especially outside Moscow. A Level 4 travel advisory for Russia was already in place. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US delivered a diplomatic démarche warning Moscow about its international health obligations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking Tuesday, called the death "cause for focus" but not alarm. "Maybe there's nothing there. Maybe it's bigger than we thought. We don't know," he said, adding that information from Russia remained "quite limited." The World Health Organization said the risk outside Russia appears very low, but its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed the agency is probing reports of a second institute employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause. Russian officials insist the situation is under control; hospitals in the Irkutsk region have been placed under quarantine measures, according to press reports. Russian media claims of a second death remain unverified.

What is confirmed: a young scientist is dead, a pathogen may have escaped a lab, Moscow is saying little, and Washington is saying it will say more Wednesday. The Putin call will be the first test of whether this becomes a health scare or something worse.