Russia plays down plague fears and denies lab accident, says scientist died of “pneumonia of unknown origin”
Russia’s government played down concerns Monday sparked by media reports that a female scientist in Siberia might have died of exposure to the plague after a lab accident. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the state health watchdog known as Rospotrebnadzor was the “lead agency with expertise in this area,” and he urged Russians to…