An employee at a Russian anti-plague institute died last week, possibly from an unspecified form of plague, leading to the quarantine of nearly 200 people in Russia's Irkutsk region. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Tuesday that the incident presents a low global risk of pathogen spread and a moderate risk for the nearby area. However, infectious disease experts, including Dr. Raj Panjabi, a Harvard University physician and former White House Biosecurity Director, argue that it's impossible to determine the risk due to a lack of transparency from Russian authorities. Russian public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor reportedly said on Tuesday that no infectious disease pathogens other than Covid-19 and the common cold virus were detected among those tested so far, despite earlier allegations of a plague outbreak by a local official.