How the Word 'Plague' Strikes Fear and Panic – From 1920s Los Angeles to Modern-Day Siberia

The mere mention of 'plague' has triggered mass hysteria, quarantine breaches, and social disruption for a century. As Siberia reports a fresh outbreak, historians and epidemiologists warn that the word itself can be as dangerous as the pathogen.

**Lead**

The word 'plague' has an almost supernatural power to incite panic, a phenomenon that has been documented from the 1920s pneumonic plague outbreak in Los Angeles to the current bubonic plague cases in Siberia. While modern medicine has rendered the disease largely treatable, the psychological and social response to the term remains a potent force, often leading to irrational behaviour, stigmatisation, and even violent unrest. This week, as Russian authorities confirmed a cluster of cases in the Altai Republic, local residents reportedly fled villages and refused medical check-ups, echoing scenes from a century ago.

**Context**

The 1924–25 pneumonic plague outbreak in Los Angeles is a stark historical example. When the first cases were identified in the city's Mexican-American neighbourhood, authorities imposed a strict quarantine. But the word 'plague' leaked into newspapers, sparking a wave of fear that led to the burning of homes, the forced evacuation of hundreds, and the erection of a literal 'plague wall' around the infected area. The Los Angeles Times ran headlines such as 'Plague Grip Tightens on City', which amplified public terror. At the time, the mortality rate was high, but the social damage – including the destruction of property and the scapegoating of immigrant communities – far outlasted the epidemic itself.

Fast-forward to modern-day Siberia. In September 2025, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights and Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) reported a small number of bubonic plague cases in the Altai region, likely transmitted from marmots. Although the disease is now curable with antibiotics, the word 'plague' – чума in Russian – immediately triggered a media storm. Social media posts showed villagers blocking roads, refusing to allow health workers into their settlements, and hoarding supplies. Local authorities had to deploy riot police to enforce quarantine measures. The panic was not driven by the actual lethality of the disease (which is low with treatment) but by the cultural and historical weight of the word itself.

Epidemiologists have long studied the 'plague panic' effect. A 2020 study in the journal *Social Science & Medicine* noted that the term 'plague' evokes biblical associations, medieval imagery, and a sense of divine punishment, making it uniquely terrifying compared to other infectious diseases. In Siberia, the word carries additional connotations from the Soviet era, when plague outbreaks were often covered up or used as propaganda tools. The result is a reflexive fear that bypasses rational risk assessment.

**Analise**

The persistence of this phenomenon matters because it undermines public health responses. When the word 'plague' is used, people may avoid hospitals, hide symptoms, or flee – actions that actually facilitate the spread of the disease. In Los Angeles in 1924, the quarantine was violently resisted because residents believed they were being rounded up for extermination. In Siberia today, similar distrust of authorities is evident. The technological dimension here is crucial: social media and instant messaging accelerate the spread of panic far faster than the pathogen itself. A single WhatsApp message saying 'plague in the next village' can empty a town within hours, as seen in the Altai Republic.

Moreover, the word 'plague' is now weaponised in political discourse. In the UK, the term has been used by anti-vaccine activists to describe COVID-19 policies, while in Russia, it has been employed to criticise government inaction. The historical parallel between 1920s LA and modern Siberia shows that the fear is not about the bacterium *Yersinia pestis* but about the narrative attached to it. Public health officials are increasingly advised to avoid the word 'plague' in official communications, using instead 'bubonic infection' or 'rodent-borne illness' to reduce panic. Yet the media, including this outlet, must balance accuracy with responsibility.

**Fontes**

- Historical accounts of the 1924–25 Los Angeles pneumonic plague outbreak, including reports from the Los Angeles Public Library archives and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) historical summaries. - Rospotrebnadzor official statements on the 2025 Altai Republic bubonic plague cases, as reported by TASS and the Moscow Times. - Academic research: 'The Power of a Word: Plague Panic in Historical and Modern Contexts', *Social Science & Medicine*, 2020. - Interviews with Dr. Natalia Popova, epidemiologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences (publicly available remarks on RT and Novaya Gazeta).