You've seen the stories: Russian media reported that a lab technician at a Siberian anti-plague institute died around October 2. Within days, the story had set off a global wave of alarm, with cable bookings, viral “BREAKING” posts and a White House statement. As of today there is no laboratory confirmation that she had plague, no case outside Russia, and the World Health Organization rates the risk as low. Nearly every alarming detail in circulation, from FSB escorts to “five hospitals quarantined” to a broken test tube, traces back to a single anonymous source inside Russia.

At present, we assess that this story is more about how information spreads and serves the goals of warfare than one about disease itself. So we built a live tracker which we will keep updated as this story either develops further — or, in our estimation right now — burns out.