Reports that a woman working at a plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region died from the disease have fueled a surge in online interest across North America in potential treatments.
Russian authorities have not confirmed that the woman died of plague. The regional governor said Thursday that no health concerns had been identified after officials traced all her contacts.
Despite the lack of confirmation, social media influencers and doomsday preppers are promoting a $300 kit they claim can help people avoid emergency room visits.
“Don’t wait until everybody is scrambling. Prepare before you need it,” reads the caption of a Facebook video viewed more than 161,000 times and posted with the hashtags #Russia and #plague.
The posts include personalized discount codes, suggesting the creators may receive financial compensation when purchases are made.
The Wellness Company, a brand promoted in many of the videos, saw a subsequent spike in online searches, according to Google Trends data.
The company is fronted by Peter McCullough, an American cardiologist who has promoted COVID-19 conspiracy theories and health misinformation debunked by Agence France-Presse (AFP). The company did not immediately respond to questions about the kits.
Rogan O’Handley, known on social media as DC Draino, highlighted the kit’s inclusion of the antibiotic doxycycline to his 2.9 million followers.
Doxycycline is among the antibiotics used to treat plague in countries where cases occur each year, helping contain outbreaks.
“We know how to treat it,” said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital.
“Obviously it can be a very severe infection,” he said, but he warned against taking a course of antibiotics without known exposure.
He said the unconfirmed case in Russia “isn’t the type of infection that would cause a pandemic.”
Paul Keim, a plague researcher and professor at Northern Arizona University, also said there was no reason for people in North America to start taking doxycycline.
“You’re altering the microbiome of your gut, and perhaps creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria in your body that will fight off the drug therapy the next time you really need it,” he said.
The kits are also advertised as containing “hard-to-find” prescription medications such as ivermectin.
But “ivermectin is never really used for a bacterial disease,” Keim said.
The antiparasitic drug is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat certain parasitic worm infections.
Yet it continues to be touted as a solution in health misinformation, in part because authorities rejected its use as an effective treatment for COVID-19 after clinical trials failed to demonstrate sufficient benefits.
This is not the first public health scare to prompt individuals to promote unproven medical solutions.
When a cruise ship passenger contracted the rare hantavirus in May, social media accounts also quickly touted ivermectin as a “cure,” even though there is no established treatment for the disease.
Amid the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, videos featuring a doctor recommending vitamin D3 and zinc spread through accounts selling supplements, despite the substances being unable to treat the disease.
“Whenever there is a crisis, especially in the health space, the grifters are gonna come out,” said Timothy Caulfield, a misinformation expert and professor at the University of Alberta.
“They exploit fear and uncertainty to sell unproven products.”
