A researcher's death in Siberia has been spun into a global plague panic, but the evidence so far points to a single isolated case rather than a lab leak or a biological attack.

• A young worker at an anti-plague research institute in Siberia died of pneumonia of unknown origin, and the story exploded into worldwide headlines about plague, quarantines, and locked-down cities.
• Russian authorities say no plague bacteria were recovered, but the wording is narrow — she had been given antibiotics, and no genetic test results have been released.
• Some things still don't add up: six hospitals in the region were shut for three weeks, triple the usual guidance, and a senior official posted then deleted a claim that she died of plague.
• Robert Malone, who assesses possible breaches of the biological weapons treaty for a UN body, scored the odds of a weapons incident or lab leak as very low, and the State Department is simply asking Russia for more information.
• The bigger worry raised was financial, not medical: US debt near $40 trillion, a weakening dollar, and countries moving away from it — with gold and other hard assets as the hedge.

Outlook: Expect genetic test results in the coming weeks to settle what killed her, with no sign yet of spread beyond the original case.