By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Please review this clip from FINNERTY on NEWSMAX where Dr McCullough and epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, appear on primetime with Rob Finnerty.
The Victim: A 28-year-old laboratory technician, identified in local reporting as Daria Shipilova, employed at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute in eastern Siberia.
Hospitalization & Death: She was admitted to a hospital in Shelekhov on September 29, 2026, with severe double pneumonia, was placed on a ventilator, and died on October 2, 2026.
Reported Cause: Media reports and regional officials (including the head of the neighboring Republic of Buryatia) indicate she died of pneumonia suspicious for plague. Unconfirmed local accounts state she may have been exposed after accidentally breaking a test tube containing live Yersinia pestis bacteria on September 25, 2026.
Official Statements: The Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare in Russia (Rospotrebnadzor), officially classified her illness as "pneumonia of unknown etiology" and claimed initial testing did not match occupational pathogens. However, anti-epidemic measures were immediately deployed across the district.
Approximately 197-200 close contacts and medical staff were placed under medical observation or isolation, and several facilities—including the hospital in Shelekhov—were put under quarantine—meaning no one is allowed to enter or leave the hospital. Dr McCullough said “they are acting like this is the plague.”
The main points here is that Yersinia pestis the bacteria that causes plaque is readily treatable with antibiotics including doxycycline, ciprofloxacin, and intravenous antibiotics including aminoglycosides (eg gentamicin). However, if the Russians have manipulated the bacteria to have other features making culture identification difficult or resistant to antibiotics, then this case could be “patient zero” for another deadly biolab leak. Fortunately this does not appear to have pandemic potential, it’s in the middle of Siberia about 4 days drive from Moscow, and we are all over it at the McCullough Foundation.
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Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
President, McCullough Foundation
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