Trump says he plans to speak with Putin about possible pneumonic plague case in Russia

President Trump told reporters Monday he was willing to help Russia, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia needs to be more transparent about what happened.Anna Moneymaker / GettyShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 6, 2026, 6:29 PM EDTBy Raquel Coronell UribePresident Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the pneumonic plague, after the death of a female staffer at a Russian anti-plague lab that’s sparked public health fears worldwide.

Asked whether he had spoken with Putin about the matter, Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that he had a “call scheduled” and that it would take place “very soon.”

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.

Trump had told reporters Monday that he was willing to help Russia, calling the pneumonic plague “a rough disease.”

“I hate to see them having it,” Trump said. “Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help.”

A Russian health watchdog said last week that Darya Shipilova, 28, a staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, had died from a “pneumonia of undetermined” origin.

The watchdog concluded that plague was not found among the staffer’s contacts, saying only that they found two cases of Covid and one of rhinovirus.

Add to GoogleMystery death in Russian lab01:42A State Department official told NBC News earlier Tuesday that the U.S. had been in contact with the Russian government regarding the incident since as early as Friday, following reports of Shipilova’s death.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it was aware and monitoring reports of the death, which it called “a suspected case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia.”

“At this time, there is no indication of a broader threat to the United States, but CDC and our interagency partners are prepared and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the CDC wrote on X.

ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleRaquel Coronell UribeRaquel Coronell Uribe is a politics reporter for NBC News.