Over the weekend, the World Health Organization published a report highlighting the plague’s reach worldwide in the last seven years, while also reporting that a female laboratory worker in Russia recently died from the disease.The White House is reportedly monitoring the situation, and a Trump administration official told Axios on Sunday that it is “aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options.”NCIS actress and activist Lauren Holly reacted to the news on Threads.“Apparently, the MAGA plague isn’t the only plague we now have to deal with...” Holly wrote.Lauren Holly reacts to reports of plague outbreak. (Image via Threads)Author, sex educator, podcast host, and speaker Catie Osborn, who goes by Catieosaurus on social media, also wrote on Threads:“Godd**n it, can we please, please, please, please, not do a whole plague outbreak?”According to Axios, the White House directed all plague-related questions to the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Everything we know about the Russian plague outbreakOn September 25, a woman named Daria Shipilova reportedly broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen at an anti-plague research facility in Irkutsk, Russia. She told her coworkers it was an accident that occurred while she was collecting live bacterial samples for testing.According to local state and independent media reports, Shipilova, 28, was hospitalized in Shelekhov, a town near Irkutsk, on September 29 with symptoms of pneumonia and put on a ventilator. She died somewhere between October 1 and 2.Russian authorities imposed mandatory quarantines at various medical and research institutes in the region, including around 200 individuals who came into contact with Shipilova.Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev told local media outlets that those who were in quarantine showed no signs of illness and tested negative for pneumonia.Meanwhile, health officials did not confirm Shipilova’s diagnosis and the Russian public health agency claimed the deceased lab worker had “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” and that additional testing did not find microorganisms. The agency also reported that the epidemiological state in Irkutsk remained “stable.”Local publication The Mash Telegram, which has alleged ties to the Kremlin, reported that Shipilova displayed the symptoms after returning from a work trip to Buryatia, a Russian region bordering Mongolia. However, Buryatia’s head Alexei Tsydenov denied Shipilova’s visit and claimed on social media that while the lab worker likely died of plague, there was no outbreak in the region.“The source of infection stems from circumstances unrelated to Buryatia,” Tsydenov wrote on VK.Another outlet, The People of Baikal, reported that at least four hospitals in Irkutsk were placed under medical isolation for three weeks. An anonymous healthcare official told the publication that their teams were “already openly talking about plague” despite no official statement being released.Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter, situated in Shelekhov, introduced mandatory masks in the facility, according to its director’s statement, after an alleged meeting with Russia’s chief sanitary doctor Anna Popova. The statement claimed that the Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has implemented a “necessary set of anti-epidemic measures.”The WHO lists pneumonic plague as one of the most virulent forms of the disease, which can be transmitted via respiratory particles among humans.