Russian plague lab case has haunting parallels in new book
The case of a Russian researcher who fell ill and died from an undisclosed cause while working at an anti-plague laboratory mirrors a cautionary new book about biological warfare.
In a case of real life mirrors fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Annie Jacobsen released her new work, Biological Warfare: A Scenario, only weeks before the events at a Siberian research institute unfolded.
American writer Annie Jacobsen has written a new book about the impact of biological warfare. Annie Jacobsen/Facebook
The plague bacterium or Yersinia pestis, known as the Black Death in the 14th century when it killed half of Europe’s population, is found among rodents in Siberia.
Russian officials have downplayed the suggestion that the female researcher – identified by Russian media as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova – died of plague.
Authorities this week said precautionary measures – including the quarantining of dozens of people – were under way.
But Jacobsen’s book takes the reader to the extreme outcome of a hypothetical release of Yersinia pestis, which is triggered, coincidentally, from a real-life Siberian research laboratory when a fire starts.
A researcher responsible for the blaze, full of guilt, visits a local church seeking confession.
This undated photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East, shows the institute workers in a lab. The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East via AP
He inadvertently infects a traveller before ending his own life in a nearby forest, where his body is found by hunters.
It doesn’t take long for the primary contacts to spread the deadly airborne fever, but due to a Russian government cover-up, the world remains in the dark.
Among the newly infected people is a passenger aboard a cruise ship which docks at Los Angeles.
Jacobsen’s previous works include the impact from a hypothetical nuclear conflict on her native US.
She draws on her extensive contacts with current and former US government officials, Russian scientific defectors and military personnel to portray an unfolding dystopian scenario of what would happen.
A new book describes the potential devastation of a biological war. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File
The White House responds by rolling out a well-rehearsed emergency plan only to see anarchy on the streets as the plague spreads, forcing handpicked government officials to shelter in underground bunkers while trying to run the country.
Jacobsen provides valuable background about the history of biological weaponry in earlier chapters, including how they were banned by an international treaty in 1975, requiring all nations to ban them.
But she explains a loophole allowed for the development of “defensive” or predictive research enabled countries, such as Soviet Russia, to carry on making them.
Jacobsen’s scenario finishes with nearly every American dead, and the few survivors drawn from society’s most selfish who have the best respirators.
Speaking on PBS in August to mark the release of her new book, Jacobsen said she wanted to make readers aware about the threat of bioweapons rather than scared.
“They are the greatest overall threat,” she said.
“And that is because the barrier for entry is so incredibly low… you need fissile material to make a nuclear weapon, you need a delivery system like an ICBM.
“We know now, particularly with AI-enabled bio, the barrier for entry is low.”
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