Tal Brosh-Nissimov
Role at the time: Director of the infectious diseases unit at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, as identified by Ynetnews, in an interview with Ynetnews
Response to this claim
The employee allegedly broke a test tube holding the pneumonic-plague pathogen at the institute on September 25, 2026, according to an account that People of Baikal attributes to the journalist Pavel Stepanov and the outlet Mash and says has no official confirmation or independent check.
“Let’s assume what is being reported is correct. I have no idea what the safety standards are there or what their procedures are. When people work in laboratories with dangerous bacteria, accidents happen and people are exposed. The description of what happened to this woman is consistent with exposure to the plague bacterium. … There are several forms of plague. The most severe, the deadliest and the most contagious is pneumonic plague. It is an extremely fast and extremely aggressive disease and the description of her deterioration within days is consistent with it. It is not certain, but it fits.”
Ynetnews article that quotes Prof. Tal Brosh Nissimov of Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, whom it identifies as director of the infectious diseases unit. His remarks are expressly conditional on the reported account being correct. Ynetnews also lists three accounts of how she may have been infected and says none has been officially confirmed. Its headline and lede describe the test-tube account in the outlet's voice, which we do not adopt.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is the proposition that the illness of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute employee, reported to have died on October 1 or 2, 2026, was plague. He opens with an express condition, that what is being reported is correct, and ends by saying it is not certain, so we used Mixed or conditional. The closest competing label is Condemned, which loses because he does not assert that she had plague. Explicitly stayed out loses because he gives a substantive view of the reported facts.