Old Caucasus footage circulated amid reports of suspected plague in Irkutsk

Old footage about restrictions in Kabardino-Balkaria circulated amid the Irkutsk reports. DW (Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster) linked it to an August Kyzylkol report rather than the events surrounding Darya Shipilova’s death.

The Mash Gor Telegram post is dated 31 August and describes ground squirrels in Dzhily-Su. TASS, Russia’s news agency, reported that day that regional Rospotrebnadzor and the national park described tourist-area closures after the pathogen was found in a ground squirrel. This concerns a different region and event.

The alleged hidden signal in a WHO (World Health Organization) fact-sheet update was also checked against documents. Its plague fact sheet is dated 29 September. That day WHO published a global news release on cholera, meningitis and plague, linking the 25 September Weekly Epidemiological Record, WHO’s weekly bulletin. The plague section covers 2019–2025, not the institute employee’s diagnosis.

The verification credits Monir Ghaedi, Tetyana Klug and Anwar Ashraf, edited by Joscha Weber. DW discloses a 7 October revision clarifying the implication of a claim. The collected materials do not establish the earlier wording or exactly which passage changed.

Late-found material added 8 October UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). DW: 6 October 11:07:52 UTC, modified 7 October 13:11:07 UTC; Irkutsk 19:07:52 and 21:11:07. Mash Gor: 31 August 11:00:30 UTC (Irkutsk 19:00:30). Telegram text read; video not independently viewed, footage comparison attributed to DW.