Concerns Over Plague Death in Siberia

defensive bioweapons program. Uh, there are also reports now that the

FSB is involved in a forceful response to the

recent fatal suspected plague death in Siberia.

My question for you is, uh, for you both, is do you see any

reason to suspect that what we're seeing now might be

the accidental release of an intentionally modified strain of

the plague that was altered by Russia? What is your level of concern?

Well, look, first of all, anytime you hear

that there's some disease that infected

someone in a lab anywhere in the world, you're gonna be concerned about it,

especially given recent events not so long ago, obviously, in two thousand

twenty-one, so in two thousand twenty when we saw that happen.

That said, it would be irresponsible for me here to

sit and speculate

because we just don't have all the information yet.

I think it's incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the

world. That's what they should do, and that's what we hope they will do.

And the more we can learn about what happened, then I-- the,

the better all of us

can be in a position of responding.

And, and maybe, you know, there's nothing there,

and maybe it's bigger than we

thought. We don't know. But I think it would be reckless at this

moment, given the

limited information we still have, to speculate about what this might

or might not

be or what this is or what this isn't.

Suffice it to say, we're watching it very closely,

and I think the whole world is

watching it very closely because depending on what we learn about it, we would know

how to respond. Uh, we already, uh, you know, have measures in

place to be able to address it if it's, if it's something, you know, more

serious than what so far has been acknowledged.

Suffice it to say, we're glad to be aware of it.

We're watching it very closely hour by hour.

We have multiple agencies, not just in the United States,

but internationally, that

are watching it. We encourage Russia to be transparent

and share more

information, uh, with the world so that all of us could react accordingly and

appropriately. But, uh, we'll have to make those decisions on the

basis of the

information that we're learning and are being provided.

And so far that's still quite limited, but hopefully that will change in the next

few hours and days.