‘Everything is normal’: Life inside the Siberian cities at the center of a plague scare

When the Siberian town of Shelekhov found itself at the center of global headlines over a plague scare , residents might have hoped to be the best informed.

But Russians have long been accustomed to living with unanswered questions and opaque governance. So, while the sudden death of 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, a lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, sparked concern around the world , residents of the quiet town 12 miles southwest of Irkutsk told CNN they knew little more than the news – and rumors – spreading fast online.

Six days after the news broke – and with no official confirmation that Shipilova died of plague, amid calls from the World Health Organization and the United States for more information – the situation appears to have prompted both resignation and skepticism.

One 36-year-old resident who only gave her name as Evgeniya told CNN everything feels “normal, as if nothing had happened.” She said she isn’t panicking, but said a friend who works as a pharmacist told her that people had been stocking up on antibiotics when rumors of plague emerged.

Russia’s health and consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said Shipilova died of a pneumonia of “unknown” origin. The agency downplayed suspicions that her illness was related to her work but rushed to isolate her contacts.

While Russia has kept a tight lid on information, CNN has spoken with residents of Shelekhov – where Shipilova died in the hospital Friday – and the nearby cities of Irkutsk and Angarsk to gain a window into the events of recent days, and scoured official and unofficial media reports for clues. The locals asked to give only their first names for privacy reasons.

Despite the Kremlin repeatedly urging people to rely only on updates from the agency, Evgeniya said most people she knows didn’t trust the public statements.

“There is no official information, and we don’t trust it anyway. There are a lot of rumors, but what is actually happening remains unclear,” she added.

Others voiced greater trust in the official narrative.

Ekaterina, 26, told CNN that “things are not bad at all” for her – and that she didn’t see any need for concern as everyone who had been in contact with the lab worker had been isolated.

“People are not giving in to panic and are carrying on with their lives as usual,” she said.

“It’s the 21st century now, and there is treatment for plague. This is not like coronavirus, which was something unknown to people. The outlook is much better. So, to sum it all up: Everything is fine. We are following safety measures and not giving in to the madness,” Ekaterina added.

That said, a pharmacist in Irkutsk, also named Ekaterina, told CNN that on Saturday there had been a run on “masks, antiseptics, and tetracycline antibiotics” where she worked, with people stocking up “just in case.”

“People were, of course, afraid of getting infected,” the 27-year-old said. “There is no panic now. It only lasted for one day. We are not seeing it anymore. Everything is just as quiet and calm.”

Pneumonic plague, by the numbers

Alina, 38, told CNN the situation is “ordinary” other than seeing increased coverage of the situation across social media platforms, which she dismissed as “panic and has nothing to do with reality.”

An unnamed Russian clinician who spoke to independent news outlet Lyudi Baikala (“People of Baikal”), which has led the way on coverage of the case, was unconvinced, though, by the Russian health watchdog’s statement that the lab worker’s illness was “unrelated to her professional activities.”

Citing the need for laboratory confirmation to take up to 10 days, he was quoted as saying, “it is impossible to definitively identify the pathogen just one day after the autopsy.”

Residents cited in Lyudi Baikala described measures authorities took to mitigate the spread of the unknown infection. They said that, on Friday night, three vehicles pulled to an apartment block believed to be where the deceased lab worker lived in Irkutsk. They said personnel wearing gas masks and orange suits emerged from the vehicles carrying several containers and began disinfecting the entrances.

“The smell was unbearable and very acrid,” a resident of the building - a woman in her 40s – told the outlet.

The team that arrived told residents they had been sent by the health watchdog. “We asked what had happened. (The personnel) told us: a young woman had died of a deadly virus, but they didn’t know anything else. They said, ‘We showed up for work, were told to go and disinfect the place, so we came and did it,’” the woman was quoted as saying. CNN cannot independently verify the account of disinfection at the apartment block.

One voice highlighting the human tragedy behind the global headlines was that of the mother of the young lab worker who died. Svetlana Shipilova – who was also in quarantine in an Irkutsk hospital – told local media outlet Glubina that her daughter hasn’t been buried yet.

“After all, who would bury her when we’re sitting here in detention? She was such a hard worker. A pure, such a pure soul,” she said.

Ordinary Russians often demonstrate resilience in the face of pressure, and exhibit a resignation toward state-directed narratives that is part of a survival mindset, rather than tacit support.

Yulia, 25, told CNN that people are “no longer surprised by anything,” adding: “Information is always limited. I think it’s like that in every region.”

A resident of Irkutsk who was responding to coverage of the case on Telegram used dark humor to describe how Russians perceive the euphemistic language of official statements.

“An explosion is a bang. A recession is negative growth. A crash is a hard landing. A fire is smoke. A retreat is a gesture of goodwill,” he commented.

“The plague is pneumonia of unknown origin… Anyone who catches this pneumonia of unknown origin should wrap themselves in a sheet and crawl to the cemetery. But do it slowly, because the main thing is not to create problems for the authorities.”

CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed reporting

当西伯利亚小镇谢列霍夫因瘟疫恐慌而成为全球新闻头条的中心时，居民们或许希望自己能获得最充分的信息。

但俄罗斯人早已习惯了生活在悬而未决的问题和不透明的政府体制中。因此，尽管28岁的达莉娅·希皮洛娃（Darya Shipilova）——伊尔库茨克防疫研究所的一名实验室技术员——的猝死引发了全世界的关注，但伊尔库茨克西南12英里处这座宁静小镇的居民告诉CNN，他们对此事知之甚少，除了网上迅速传播的新闻和谣言之外，几乎一无所知。

消息传出六天后——在世界卫生组织和美国呼吁提供更多信息的同时，官方仍未确认希皮洛娃死于鼠疫——这种情况似乎引发了人们的无奈和怀疑。

一位名叫叶夫根尼娅的36岁居民告诉CNN，一切感觉“都很正常，好像什么都没发生过一样”。她说自己并不恐慌，但她一位在药剂师工作的朋友告诉她，在瘟疫谣言出现时，人们都在囤积抗生素。

俄罗斯联邦消费者权益保护和福利监督局（Rospotrebnadzor）表示，希皮洛娃死于一种病因“不明”的肺炎。该机构淡化了外界对其病情与工作相关的怀疑，但迅速隔离了与其有过接触的人员。

尽管俄罗斯对信息严加保密，但CNN仍采访了谢列霍夫（希皮洛娃周五在当地医院去世）以及附近城市伊尔库茨克和安加尔斯克的居民，以了解近日发生的事件，并仔细查阅了官方和非官方媒体的报道，寻找线索。出于隐私考虑，当地居民要求只透露自己的名字。

尽管克里姆林宫一再敦促人们只依赖该机构发布的最新消息，但叶夫根尼娅说，她认识的大多数人都不相信这些公开声明。

“目前没有任何官方消息，而且我们也不相信官方消息。谣言很多，但实际情况仍然不清楚，”她补充道。

另一些人则表示更信任官方说法。

26 岁的叶卡捷琳娜告诉 CNN，她的情况“一点也不糟糕”，而且她认为没有必要担心，因为所有与实验室工作人员接触过的人都已被隔离。

“人们没有陷入恐慌，而是像往常一样继续生活，”她说。

“现在是21世纪，鼠疫是有治疗方法的。这跟新冠病毒不一样，新冠病毒是人们一无所知的。情况要好得多。总而言之：一切都很好。我们正在遵守安全措施，不会屈服于这种疯狂，”叶卡捷琳娜补充道。

话虽如此，伊尔库茨克的一位名叫叶卡捷琳娜的药剂师告诉 CNN，周六在她工作的地方，“口罩、消毒剂和四环素类抗生素”都被抢购一空，人们都在囤货“以防万一”。

“人们当然害怕被感染，”这位27岁的年轻人说。“现在已经没有恐慌了。恐慌只持续了一天。我们再也看不到恐慌的迹象了。一切都恢复了平静。”

肺鼠疫数据

38 岁的阿丽娜告诉 CNN，除了在社交媒体平台上看到对该事件的报道增多之外，情况“很正常”，她认为这些报道是“恐慌，与现实无关”。

一位不愿透露姓名的俄罗斯临床医生接受了独立新闻媒体《贝加尔湖人民报》（Lyudi Baikala）的采访，该报一直率先报道此案。这位临床医生对俄罗斯卫生监管机构的声明表示怀疑，该声明称实验室工作人员的疾病“与她的职业活动无关”。

他指出，实验室确认需要长达 10 天的时间，并表示：“尸检后仅一天就确定病原体是不可能的。”

据柳迪拜卡拉居民描述，当局采取了措施来遏制这种不明传染病的传播。他们说，周五晚上，三辆车停在伊尔库茨克一栋公寓楼前，据信死者是那名实验室工作人员的住所。他们说，戴着防毒面具、身穿橙色防护服的人员从车上下来，手里拿着几个容器，开始对入口进行消毒。

“气味令人难以忍受，非常刺鼻，”该楼一位40多岁的女居民告诉媒体。

抵达现场的工作人员告诉居民，他们是受卫生监管机构派遣的。“我们问发生了什么事。（工作人员）告诉我们：一名年轻女子死于一种致命病毒，但他们对此一无所知。他们说，‘我们来上班，接到通知要去消毒，所以我们就来了，做了消毒工作，’”这位女士说道。CNN无法独立核实该公寓楼的消毒情况。

在众多报道中，一位年轻实验室工作人员的母亲的声音凸显了这场全球新闻背后的人间悲剧。斯韦特兰娜·希皮洛娃（Svetlana Shipilova）当时也在伊尔库茨克一家医院接受隔离治疗。她告诉当地媒体Glubina，她的女儿至今尚未下葬。

“毕竟，我们都被关在这里，谁来埋葬她呢？她那么勤奋，那么纯洁，那么纯洁的灵魂，”她说。

普通俄罗斯人在面对压力时往往表现出韧性，对国家主导的叙事表现出一种顺从的态度，这是一种生存心态，而不是默许。

25岁的尤利娅告诉CNN，人们“对任何事情都不再感到惊讶了”，她还补充说：“信息总是有限的。我认为每个地区都是如此。”

一位伊尔库茨克居民在 Telegram 上回应有关此案的报道时，用黑色幽默描述了俄罗斯人如何看待官方声明中的委婉语言。

“爆炸是一声巨响。衰退是负增长。崩溃是硬着陆。火灾是浓烟。撤退是一种善意的姿态，”他评论道。

“这种瘟疫就是病因不明的肺炎……任何得了这种病因不明的肺炎的人都应该用床单把自己裹起来，爬到墓地去。但要慢慢爬，因为最重要的是不要给当局添麻烦。”

CNN的安娜·切尔诺娃对此报道亦有贡献。