Pneumonic plague spreads through the air, moves fast, and kills quickly. Even with immediate treatment, it carries a brutal death rate. If you don't get treatment within 24 hours, it's virtually 100% fatal. So, a lab tech drops a test tube in Siberia, dies four days later, and Russia won't even utter the word "plague." They call it "pneumonia of unknown origin." Well I think they know the origin. They know exactly what was in that broken tube. And while they play PR games with the diagnosis and potential outbreak, every hour they waste is an hour taken off the clock. Beating this depends on someone telling the truth on day one. If they are hiding the truth, like they did with anthrax in the 70s, we are already behind the clock.