EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Russia Says Patients Infected With Deadly Bacteria Have Escaped.

It sounds like the plot of an infectious disease thriller: on the arid plains of Siberia, a dinner party partakes of horse meat that secretly harbors a rare and deadly bacteria. Once guests start showing signs of an infection, they are sent to the hospital, but some escape their sick beds — panicking local officials who send out an alert.

That’s how it allegedly went down in Tuva, a republic in Russia’s southern Siberian region in late June, and the bacteria that made everybody sick is anthrax, according to TASS, a Russian state-run news agency.

Anthrax has a long shelf life but it isn’t really contagious the way a viral infection is.