The world is talking about a possible plague outbreak in Russia, and Trump even plans to call Putin about it. Is it really that serious?

A possible plague outbreak in Russia is increasingly making headlines in the world’s media and drawing the attention of officials in the world’s leading countries. U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to call Vladimir Putin to get information from him. In Brussels, the situation will be discussed at a meeting of the European Union’s Health Security Committee. Authorities in Mongolia and China have requested additional information about the incident from Rospotrebnadzor.

So does all this attention mean we should be worried about a plague outbreak?

No. It’s odd, to say the least, that Donald Trump has focused on an unconfirmed plague death in Russia: an average of seven Americans are diagnosed with plague each year in the United States, including its pneumonic form. If confirmed, the Russian case would be the country’s first since 2016.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has requested data from Russian agencies about the situation in the Irkutsk region and assesses the risk to residents of Russia as low and the risk to people in Europe as very low. That assessment is well-founded: plague does not spread from person to person all that easily.

Russian authorities have quarantined and are monitoring people who had contact with the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute researcher who died. Antibiotics taken at the first signs of plague are highly effective, and Russia also has a vaccine against the infection.

So why is everyone talking about this?

The main source of global concern appears to be not the possible outbreak itself and its effects, but the absence of clear official comment from Russian authorities.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus made that clear in a statement, saying that “timely, complete and transparent information sharing” is important for accurate risk assessment and to “clarify conflicting reports.”

Unnamed U.S. officials complained to The Wall Street Journal that Russian authorities have provided “little information” about what happened. The State Department is preparing a formal diplomatic message requesting additional information about the death of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute employee and the subsequent quarantine measures, according to The Washington Post.