Trump Calls Putin After SECOND Plague Death

Vladimir Putin at a podium with two microphones — Photo: ID1974 / Shutterstock

President Trump told reporters at the White House he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” to talk about a possible case of pneumonic plague in Siberia.

Quick Take

Trump said Tuesday he has a call scheduled with Putin “very soon” over a suspected plague case tied to a Russian research lab.
The concern follows the death of a laboratory worker in Irkutsk, Russia, after she developed severe pneumonia.
Trump said American intelligence agencies are in “very deep discussions” about the situation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) both say they are monitoring the case closely.
Russian officials have shared few details, and later told the WHO no plague case has been recorded in Irkutsk.

Trump Confirms The Call Is On The Calendar

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said plainly that a call with Putin was already set up. “I have a call scheduled, yes,” he said when asked directly if he had spoken with the Russian leader about the matter. He added the conversation would happen “very soon,” repeating the phrase multiple times when pressed on timing.

Trump called the situation a “big problem” and said he believed the United States government would be able to share more information soon. He also said American intelligence agencies were engaged in “very deep discussions” about the case, a sign the administration views it as more than a routine health update.

A Lab Worker’s Death Sparked The Alarm

The concern traces back to the death of a female employee at a Russian anti-plague research institute in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. She died Friday, October 2, after developing severe pneumonia. Russian media reports suggested she may have contracted plague during a laboratory accident, though officials have not confirmed the exact cause.

Pneumonic plague, the lung-based form of the disease, is considered the most dangerous version because it can spread between people through respiratory droplets. That detail alone explains why health agencies moved fast to track the story, even before Russia released hard answers.

Washington’s Health Agencies Are Already Watching

The CDC said on social media it was “aware of and closely monitoring” reports of the suspected case in the Irkutsk region. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told reporters the agency was tracking the situation with its interagency partners. Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately warned the situation could “quickly spread” if not handled with transparency, a comment Trump responded to directly.

Moscow Has Offered Few Details, And A Denial

Russia has released limited information about what happened inside the lab or the scope of the exposure. The country shut down its WHO liaison office during the war in Ukraine, which has made direct communication harder. The WHO says it reached out to Russian health officials for information and has not received much back.

Russian authorities later told the WHO that no case of plague has actually been recorded in Irkutsk, a statement that stands in direct tension with the earlier reports of a lab worker’s death from suspected plague. That gap between the reported death and Moscow’s formal denial is the clearest open question in the story right now.

Why This Matters Beyond One Phone Call

A single presidential phone call might sound small, but it signals how seriously the administration is treating a potential biosecurity event inside a country that limits outside scrutiny. Conservatives have long argued that transparency from foreign governments, especially Russia, cannot be taken on faith. Trump picking up the phone personally, rather than routing everything through health bureaucracies, fits a pattern of direct leader-to-leader pressure this administration has favored on other urgent matters.

World health officials have said the public risk to the general population currently appears low based on unofficial information available so far. Still, the quarantine measures already imposed on a hospital in the affected Russian city show local authorities are not treating this as nothing. The call between Trump and Putin, once it happens, should offer the clearest American government readout yet on what Russia actually knows.

🚨 TRUMP IS CALLING PUTIN TO TALK ABOUT THE RUSSIAN PLAGUE

He says the call is scheduled.

Intelligence agencies are in deep discussions and will report on it TOMORROW. ⏰

A lab worker at a Siberian plague institute is dead. Nearly 200 people were monitored. Moscow says it was…

— Monica.Anderson222 (@Real_monica_an) October 7, 2026

For now, the facts on record are straightforward: a lab worker died after severe pneumonia, Russian officials have given conflicting signals about whether plague was involved, and Trump has committed publicly to raising it directly with Putin. The outcome of that call will likely shape the next round of headlines on this story.