Health

Official tests found no plague and no lab accident behind the death of a 28-year-old employee at an Irkutsk anti-plague institute — a verdict that unwinds the rumor that ran through Chinese feeds all week, though the WHO still wants answers.

Health

Russian Researcher Dies After Suspected Plague Exposure, Nearly 200 People Quarantined

A 28-year-old assistant at an anti-plague institute in Irkutsk died days after breaking a vial of live bacteria, and about 200 contacts were quarantined. Russian tests found no plague, but the account — a lab accident, a misdiagnosed pneumonia — moved fast on Chinese social media.

Health

Seven Hours, Not Eight: The Sleep Number Going Viral in China

A cluster of new studies has given Chinese social media permission to stop chasing the eight-hour night: frailty risk bottoms out at roughly seven hours of sleep, according to research in the Nature journal npj Aging using Chinese survey data. On Weibo, the finding is arriving alongside traditional Chinese medicine's own bedtime timetable — and visible relief from tracker users who never hit eight.