Did The X-Files predict the Russian plague?
By Easton Martin
A deadly incident at a Siberian research institute, government restrictions on information, and international officials watching the situation closely sound like something from The X-Files. This month, however, similar events are reportedly unfolding in eastern Russia.
The incident began at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia. A 28-year-old female technician reportedly died after breaking a vial containing live pathogens. Regional authorities then placed nearly 200 people under quarantine or medical observation. The official account soon became less clear.
Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s public health watchdog, reportedly changed earlier references to plague and began describing the illness as pneumonia of unknown origin. Reports about the incident were also removed from some regional sources. The agency later told the World Health Organization that no dangerous pathogens were present among the public.
The story sounds familiar to anyone who remembers The X-Files. In the Season 4 episodes “Tunguska” and “Terma,” Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate a biological threat connected to Russia. The episodes involve Russian scientists, secret facilities, infected people, and government officials working to keep information from reaching the public.
The similarities between the fictional story and the reported events in Irkutsk are interesting, to say the least. Both stories involve a Russian research facility, dangerous pathogens, sick people, and government secrecy. Both also involve officials trying to control what information reaches the outside world.
Pneumonic plague is caused by Yersinia pestis and can spread through respiratory droplets. Without prompt treatment, the disease can become deadly within a short period. A containment accident at a facility that studies dangerous pathogens would therefore be a serious public health event.
The X-files has always had a certain way of predicting some of the more shady occurrences of governments and bad actors around the world. Chris Carter built The X-Files around the idea that government secrecy by nature loves to hide threats from the public, something that is likely far more common than we know.
