U.S. monitors suspected Russian plague case as Trump plans call with Putin

Reported by NBC News. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the pneumonic plague after the death of a female staffer at a Russian anti-plague lab sparked public health fears worldwide.

Asked whether he had spoken with Putin about the matter, Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that he had a “call scheduled” and that it would take place “very soon.”

On Wednesday, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied a call had been set up, saying, “No substantive arrangements have been made.”

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he did not think the plague was a bioweapon. Asked whether he was getting the same “vibe” from Russia as he did from China at the start of the Covid pandemic, he said neither country said much.

“But they do say they have it very much under control,” he said of Russia.

Trump had told reporters Monday that he was willing to help Russia, calling the pneumonic plague “a rough disease.”