Sverdlovsk Anthrax Leak: The USSR’s Deadly Lab Leak

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Sources/Additional Resources:
Atlantic, how DNA evidence uncovered the truth of the leak: www.theatlantic.com/health/ar...
History DA, Soviet bioweapons: www.historyda.org/biological-...
LA Times: www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
Good details: www.helyx.science/post/the-sv...
NYTimes, in-depth: www.nytimes.com/2021/06/20/wo...
Washington Post, some details. www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...
BBC podcast: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04x...

[@geographicstravel]

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[@KillsAll.]

What up son? Anthrax rules 🤘🎧🥁

[@michaelb6420]

Can you please, please do a documentary on the rape of Nanking while covering the invasion of the Japanese Islands & the death count & why this death count was so high. As well as why dropping the advance in technology of bombs was no different from the bombing of Dresden Germany in the death toll. & if you have the guts to actually be truthful in why this new technology was no different then the "fire bombing" of Germany & Japan.. then maybe I can bring myself to watch your videos again.. I was horribly disappointed in how you glorified the Japanese after the extraordinary Hiroshima victory.. & the Nagasaki revenge... the Japanese did things to humans that never should be thought of.. the Japanese deserved 27 Hiroshima's at the very least!!! Just like Germany deserved 35 Dresden's ... You pay for what you support..!

[@jarrodbarker5050]

You're a square space. Burn... 🔥

[@courtney9080]

@@michaelb6420 Pp

[@mjuneoginn]

And come early 2020... Soviet China, through the Wuhan Labs didn't get nor heed to the memo; continued on tweaking SARS and Coronavirus Strains: and caused the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020... Nuff Said._

[@afcreative22]

I love how I'm learning more about Russian history from Simon that I did from actual history classes in Russia...

[@mikelondon08]

Its the same all over eastern europe

[@Aconitum_napellus]

I hope you're not in Russia and your loved ones are safe. нет войны

[@AnarchyWerebitch]

Ouch.

[@maximumfilms7458]

I've learned more about America here than I have in any of my history classes in the US

[@jdrissel]

China did what the KGB tried to do...

[@jetamtskheta]

My husband is from Yekaterinburg. He told me that all over the region there are tombs made of bricks, where people and animals infected by anthrax are buried. And all those tombs are long uncared of and lost watertightness. And near one of those a cottage village was built. And houses there are extremely cheap, but no one of the locals is crazy enough to live in a contaminated place :)

[@PoDaBo]

How cheap is anthrax housing there in comparison to normal housing prices?

[@simon1italy]

​@PoDaBo it depends on location: in Russia, probably 98% cheaper. In New York... Anthrax contaminated building... the landlord would probably give you a 5% discount for the first year of contract. Maybe they'll throw in free internet, but that's pushing it a bit already.

[@parkerlynne]

"It was almost as if through sheer effort the USSR believed it could will an alternative universe into existence" Imagine that...

[@AlexGore511]

Little does anyone know, that universe exists in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert series.

[@nmxsanchez]

You don't realize how ironic your comment is. It's the US trying to will an alternate reality in to existence. Do you think this is just Putin wanting territory? Why now? Why Ukraine? You are clueless about your own government.

[@connorbosley4431]

@@nmxsanchez ukraine decided to get closer to nato rather than russia so russia invades. This is literally an abusive relationship. Russia beats ukraine, tells ukraine it'll change, beats it again, ukraine tries to leave, russia tries to kill it

[@AlexGore511]

@@nmxsanchez Found the bootlicking Tankie.

[@theprogram863]

@@nmxsanchez Why now? Because Putin sensed the opportunity: that the NATO countries were distracted and weak. He saw what he thought was a low-risk chance to conquer a resource-rich country in a valuable strategic position and took it. You might say, "Why now and not seven years ago..." except that Putin _did_ invade Ukraine seven years ago. In late February of 2014, Putin invaded and conquered Crimea (part of Ukraine) in an operation smaller but overall very similar to the 2022 invasion under way right now. NATO countries including the USA raised a fuss and passed some sanctions, but overall they chose to let the whole thing slide. Six years before that, in 2008, Putin invaded the Republic of Georgia, conquering a big chunk of the country. In that case as well, there was little serious response from NATO; newly elected Barack Obama blamed his predecessor rather than Putin, and sent his secretary of state to Russia with a "reset button," offering to put the matter behind them. In all three cases, Russia had spent years prior to the invasion on subversion/harassment operations against its intended victim. Meanwhile, it escalated with threats and allegations, and then finally attacked when it appeared its victim's allies would be unlikely to respond. That's why now. Why Ukraine? The same reason Russia has been conquering Ukraine again and again, going back to the eighteenth century. Plus oil. A Putin-aligned Russian newspaper accidentally posted an editorial right after the invasion started. It clearly had been written to be published in the event of a quick victory, and was quickly removed from the site once it became clear that the Ukrainians were putting up a serious fight. The article riffs on some of the grievances Nate alluded to, but mainly it gloats that the invasion was inevitable because Ukraine should never have been given independence in the first place, was a Russian territory by right, and both Ukraine and NATO were helpless in the face of Russian power and determination.

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

It's so sad how disposable life is in Russia. It looks like the only reason they stop disasters like this from worsening is to save face in the public eye.

[@scottbyrd4416]

It's not isolated to Russia or then USSR.

[@kevinbarry71]

I think you have hit on the key to Russian thinking; nobody would be crazy or stupid enough to do this. It's brilliant, that's what we will do

[@andrewgause6971]

I mean, refuge in audacity is a thing. But the issue is that the plan has to 1. Be foolproof, or 2. Catch the enemy so off guard that they're destroyed before they can mount an effective resistance. The latter isn't applicable here, and its clear that the only thing foolproof was the amount of high proof vodka the fool in charge of designing safety systems was drunk on when they decided that a single point of failure system was A-okay for containing one of the most lethal germs known to mankind.

[@stackflow343]

I choked on my drink laughing when he said that lmao

[@AnarchyWerebitch]

Sadly, yes.

[@automechs360]

I think that it's more along the idea that they were just cocky enough to think they were masters of everything. Plus a heavy dose of stupidity, look at the handling of the Chernobyl events for Russian stupidly trying to lie and hide numbers. Lying is a hallmark of the USSR's reign.

[@RazalasTrebla]

It kinda worked. No one did suspect a thing... until the outbreak, that is. 😅

[@battlebeard2041]

Me: “Ehh I need something good to listen to.” Simon: “Anthrax disaster!” Me: 🤔 _Acceptable._

[@suzettewilliams1758]

Lol Time off from the on going nightmare of the 2020s and potential nuclear war.

[@MrSuperMichel1997]

Same haha.

[@KillsAll.]

Listening to ANTHRAX YEAH🤘

[@utbdoug]

Imagine Russia not adhering to treaties and agreements they've entered!

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Or the US, China, Iran, North Korea...treaties are often ignored.

[@utbdoug]

@@owenshebbeare2999 Aye.. Most kept it on the fringe. Soviet States were absolutely blatant.. Amazing we've only had proxy wars up until now lol

[@jwenting]

@@owenshebbeare2999 or deliberately worded so vaguely that they're not worth the paper they're written on.

[@theprogram863]

That's one major reason for the coverup (obviously not the only reason). The anthrax outbreak began when US President Jimmy Carter was just seven weeks away from a summit in Vienna, where he and Brezhnev signed the SALT II agreement. At the time, the Soviets were pushing very hard to sign nuclear arms control treaties with the United States. Anti-war activism was still a major force in 1979, with activists demanding that the US dismantle its nuclear program and claiming that if they did, that the Soviets would surely do the same. The USSR's calculation was simple: America's open society and free press made it difficult for the USA to cheat, at least on a large scale, whereas such cheating was already easy and routine for the Soviets. Playing on idealistic activists, disinformation campaigns, and the existing political polarization in the West, the Soviets hoped to turn what they saw as western naivete into a hard military advantage. So in addition to the scandal making communism and its leaders look bad, an important consideration in itself, such a massive and obvious violation of the Biological Weapons Convention as this anthrax accident would have destroyed the SALT II talks and squandered all the pressure the Soviets had managed to generate for the West to reduce its stockpiles of nuclear weapons. It would have also undermined public support for nuclear disarmament and the peace movement in general. That ended up happening anyway. Jimmy Carter _did_ sign the SALT II agreement, but it was never ratified by the US Senate. This wasn't because of the anthrax accident revealing the illegal soviet bioweapons program; that was successfully covered up. Instead, six months later, the Russians launched a surprise war of aggression against Afghanistan. A month after that, it came out that the Soviets had secretly placed a unit of several thousand combat troops in Cuba. To my knowledge, the action in Cuba didn't break any treaties, but those events reversed American interest in arms control agreements with the Soviets for several years, and support for the unilateral nuclear disarmament movement fell apart and never entirely recovered. (In a weird epilogue, though, both sides did adhere to SALT II's terms despite the treaty never having taken effect.)

[@enrico7474]

Well the US has invaded a dozen countries illegally and recently got busted trying to help ukraine develop bio weapons the same weapons they falsely claimed saddam owned ,used it as a justification for the iraq invasion so idk about that the US seems to be on the same level if not worse

[@mtsoko8712]

"Compound 19" would be a great name for a thrash metal band.

[@chrissiek8706]

CoM£19 as a rapper name

[@plisskenationbackfromthede3657]

Could be a part 2 to hangar 18? Lol

[@KillsAll.]

Yeah Scott Ian f’d up naming the band Anthrax 🤘

[@mtsoko8712]

@@KillsAll. They could've named their first album "Fistful of Anthrax"

[@andersjjensen]

@@KillsAll. Perhaps Compound 19 could warm up for Anthrax! :P

[@cmennare]

Lesson to be learned? never put any atrocity possible beyond the scope of politicians.

[@dharmagirl5889]

A very good lesson to learn. Well summarized.

[@youtubedeletedmynamewhybother]

Never doubt the depths of depravity and lack of empathy that humanity can display. Atleast half of society in developed countries would do well to remember that.

[@aegaeon117]

Governments are the enemy of the people.

[@theclandestinewitness]

Simon, I'd love to see a video on one of your channels about the Novichok agents from Russia. Thank you for the awesome content!

[@chaycecole4466]

A novichok agents video is a must!!

[@JPaterson8942]

Allegedly from Russia... :P

[@seanrichards7421]

He won't do it. Every other word would be allegedly

[@hughmann9017]

Want.

[@bobfg3130]

@@JPaterson8942 It's from Russia alright.

[@monroerobbins7551]

I’m really glad doctors and people got information out, that people defected. They were so brave, and brilliant, they risked their lives to save others and show the truth. So I’m glad they did it, and that they persisted, and insisted on showing the truth. They are truly heroes, and in the future, I pray that if this happens again, there will be people that will do the same, for they are the brilliant lights that shine against the true cruelty of the world.

[@TexboyGamer]

Doctors now lack any honor or bravery, they only care for who puts weight in their wallet

[@colintimp1372]

For what though? What good is the truth really when nobody will ever be held responsible? Slowly this is what capitalism in the U.S. is becoming. Nobody is ever criminally charged; at worst they're made to pay a fine, which is usually reduced to a pathetic amount. This is just considered the cost of doing business now. Businesses pay the fine, personal wealth is shielded from lawsuits, and they move on to their next shady practice that ruins more people's lives in search of the next billion dollars.

[@pamelamays4186]

This could have easily an Into The Shadows segment. Well done Simon & Co.!😉👌

[@sophroniel]

I see little difference between all his channels except for business/brain blaze..... they are all just simon narrating interesting things in slightly different areas of his studio, with slightly different camera angles and lights and he slightly adjusts his level of formality each time

[@Themorrigan23]

I know. I heard him say stop messing with crazy shit. I'm like dang that's new haha

[@chlorineismyperfume]

I like that the disease episodes are in this channel but there's definitely crossover.

[@skivvy3565]

Biohazard, by Ken Albiek (director of top bioweaponeer program for all of USSR) is an amazing book that covers his work with anthrax and genetically altering it and crossing it with plague and etc. he made the most virulent and deadly form of anthrax known to man and covers a lot of the most famous lab leaks and accidental contaminations he was personally in charge of dealing with. Highly recommend it to those interested in this.

[@brandonhurd6785]

I own the book. Very Interesting, but also terrifying at the same time. Imagine, with today medical and technological achievements, what governments around the world are working on....

[@jammin1881]

I would never be able to read that after becoming a long hauler. What really happened in Wuhan - by Sharri Markson was bad enough.

[@Acastaigne]

Thanks for the recommendation! Book sounds great and really interesting; going to buy it.

[@ki5rllthreedronefour85]

“The worst biological accident in Soviet history…..” Of several in a scale. That we know of. That they couldn’t bury.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:25 - Chapter 1 - Weapon in a vial 4:45 - Chapter 2 - The perfect bioweapon 7:30 - Mid roll ads 8:55 - Chapter 3 - The biological chernobyl 12:15 - Chapter 4 - Secrets & lies 15:35 - Chapter 5 - Different narratives 18:35 - Chapter 6 - Disturbing the dead

[@KillsAll.]

Is this the set list of last night’s Anthrax concert son??

[@LogieT2K]

@@KillsAll. i laughed hard that

[@rodneyfaulkner7453]

My now late wife was from Yekaterinburg, her father was a Capitan in the KGB at the time, she told me of many events that affected the city as it was a very much industrial city.

[@rachelb4398]

Dammit, Simon, I thought I'd be able to eat my breakfast while watching a Geographics video. I just finished the Casual Criminalist on Ed Gein, and thought, Geographics would be pretty benign in comparison, that it would be a nice break from all the gruesomeness...I was wrong!

[@sandybarnes887]

Oopsie

[@PerfeckteDroge]

You ate breakfast after watching an Ed Gein video? You have a stronger stomach than I!

[@Beryllahawk]

I have learned not to trust, haha!

[@markborishnikoff5485]

Patrick Bateman has entered the chat

[@Yourmomma92]

@@PerfeckteDroge during

[@MychalWave]

The USSR & NBC Disasters go together like Death & Taxes man

[@wyolaskan1868]

I could be mistaken, but isn’t there a 4th component to NBC? I thought there was, but it’s escaping me.

[@tierneylogan5943]

A bio weapon lab posing as a civilian research facility? Surely not.

[@killman369547]

*Looks intensely at Ukraine and China*

[@konev13thebeast]

@@killman369547 tbf, the Ukraine ones are US labs

[@HyperactiveNeuron]

LOL no couldn't be

[@tuvelat7302]

Right? Sounds awfully familiar.

[@Usual_User]

​@@killman369547 ah yes "bioweaponised Ukrainian pigeons", try to provide a little bit of evidence next time tankie)

[@ComaDave]

Awesome. Instant thumb up. I've asked for this a couple of times. Once upon a time - information on this near-miss nightmare was so scarce, that I started a page on Wikipedia in the hopes of drawing out details from the shadows. Mission: accomplished. 👍

[@ladyflimflam]

1:18 well now i want a top 10 of soviet coverups

[@sdrawkcabemdaer5]

Oooo seconded! That would make a great video topic

[@andyyang3029]

You mentioned this in a sideprojects not long ago!! was waiting for the full explanation from one of your channels :)

[@xxmrrickxx]

I can’t quite place it but it reminds me of another incident where a pathogen escaped from a biolab and was immediately blamed on an illegal meat market.

[@bobflatman278]

Don't worry same lab and same country are at it again. All in the name of research. Ask any mose with humane cells.

[@SpruceOaks]

"This being the Soviet Union, 'safety' was basically Russian for 'not giving a fuck.'" lol

[@kktvgaming5621]

Soviets motto: we fucked up how can we cover it up this time

[@hkchan1339]

China too

[@moleymoley32]

One of the best episodes and that OUTRO man, so good. 🔥🔥 keep up the good work, Whistler & Co. ✨️

[@jammin1881]

Russia 1970's- we got 200-300 people checking out from anthrax. China 2019 - hold my beer!

[@sammedina2011]

Simon it would be great to see a video on “Theia” the planet that collided with earth 4 Billion Years ago that eventually formed the moon, would be a great fit for this channel. Just a Suggestion:)

[@johnstevenson9956]

"Nobody is crazy enough or stupid enough to do this. So let's do it!"

[@PatrickESpecht]

I called out this outbreak in an essay question during my AP test about 10 years ago; turns out my professor was part of an investigation team about the Sverdlovsk leak years before....

[@jwenting]

The Aralsk smallpox outbreak wasn't caused by an accident or lack of security on the part of the test facility where it happened. It was the result of people who didn't know about the facility or what was going on there ignoring the bans on sailing boats near the island, getting downwind of an experiment, and getting their boat contaminated. Doesn't in any way justify the Soviet bioweapons program, but this was not something that the people running the program can be directly blamed for as they'd taken the necessary precautions and were unaware of the small boat sailing in the plume. It also shows how well total and quick isolation of sick people can work to stop the spread of that disease in its tracks. Within hours of the first person showing symptoms the city of Aralsk had been locked tight, nothing coming in or going out, and everyone who had symptoms was quarantined. As a result the number of victims was extremely low. As to the US bioweapons program (which was terminated several years prior to the biological weapons convention was signed btw), it never produced a deployable weapon (though there were experiments of potential delivery systems). This unlike the Soviet program which had a stockpile of ready to deploy weapons for decades (and possibly still). It was found that they were working on a cruise missile with intercontinental range that could have rained down anthrax, smallpox, or pneumonic plague on cities worldwide with almost no warning, either in the aftermath of or instead of an all out nuclear attack.

[@rosiehawtrey]

You mean the nice safe containment where they were sweeping up Anthrax spores with *yard brooms* - an action by the way instigated by everyone's favourite pisshead Russian - Boris "off-licenceski" Yeltsin that almost managed to infect everyone within a half mile downwind. The accident happened because some twerp ran out of filters on the uptakes and some other twerp put a note "do not use *until* I have a filter. Which of course - the pointy haired managerial twerp didn't read..

[@wingerding]

Huh? It's not a contagion.

[@jwenting]

@@rosiehawtrey nope, You're confusing Aralsk and Sverdlovsk.

[@jwenting]

@@wingerding Smallpox is, which is what hit Aralsk.

[@angelopugliese6034]

@@rosiehawtrey It happened in 1979, how did Yeltsin have anything to do with it?

[@mrcertainly]

That's the absolute best Boris Yeltsin "stock" video at 17:51.

[@randallodell3605]

Thanx for this video. I have never heard of this before.

[@mikecummings6593]

Sure you did it happened two years ago in China

[@wentoneisendon6502]

Never heard of this, and I love my history and disasters. Great video

[@Thorkell85]

Love this Content! Thank you !

[@Newt.--.Jaeden]

Ah, yet another Soviet Related Anthrax Incident. Can't seem to get away from them!

[@KillsAll.]

Anthrax has great world tours son, Clash of the Titans was a good tour for moshing 🤘

[@stackflow343]

Literally everyone: Surely nobody would be crazy or stupid enough to place such extremely lethal labs in the middle of their own populated cities Россия: haha joke on you, it last place you look lmao like something out of a red alert 2 plot

[@Uzair_Of_Babylon465]

Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job

[@jaytrace1006]

So weird! I can’t believe I have never heard this story. Maybe I was too young (12), but six years later I took a trip to the USSR. Thank you Simon & your crew for telling this story…

[@danielgautreau161]

Take a look at Ken Alibek's autobiography BioHazard.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

President Yeltsin likely was there during the event (he was already a local level politician, and his first constituency if I remember correctly was in Sverdlovsk) of the statistical discrepancy, the fact that so few young people and the similarities of those that were infected was likely due to the fact that all infections happened in a very military focused industrial area, somewhere, where even those that resided in the small factory towns were usually single workers. it was a newly built up swathe of the city suburbs dedicated in the day to this sort of industry, as for beyond the labs immediate vicinity, heading out of Sverdlovsk, it was all very rural countryside, with small remote settlements where, those who got infected likely were never properly accounted for... not from there, but my understanding is that even today, the city, whilst it is somewhat developed, is not as thriving of a place as you suggest, when you get into the suburbs, it is still very industrial and quite grim.... it is also, still a place, whilst a metropolis with a lot of resources, sort of in the middle of nowhere... the kind of place where people who want to do shady of the radar stuff go....

[@Daydreaminginmono]

Ahh sweet cheers dudes, i watched the Biographics on Anthrax last night and wondered where Sverdlovsk would be.

[@KillsAll.]

Check the tour dates for Anthrax’s next tour son🤘

[@smokymcpot5917]

It's my day off and I'm spending it binge watching your videos. Great channel.

[@SRW_]

Been waiting for this one

[@Anirandom1214]

Huh... Yekaterinburg... seems like the Soviets loved covering up shit there considering that's also where the Romanovs were murdered 50 odd years before this, just random correlation but still interesting

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Wish such perfidy was restricted to the USSR, but was standard procedure during that time, on both sides.

[@xDTx12So]

You should do a video on the Holodomor. Ukraine’s ( death by starvation ) by the USSR.

[@killuminati91112]

Crazy shit. Nice job Simon and the team, another great vid.

[@ChristelVinot]

there's a team?

[@AtlasStruts]

Excellent closer. Thank you.

[@llamasugar5478]

Let’s be honest; it wasn’t reported because no one wanted to be punished.

[@mariusvanc]

Siberian labor camps are not fun.

[@gorillaau]

No one wanted to punish anyone because they didn't want it reported.

[@Cashewcream]

I read about this in a Robin Cook novel called Vector. I thought it was fiction! In the book one of the Russian scientists involved emigrates to America and plots a terrorist attack using anthrax. It's a pretty good story.

[@emmahealy4863]

Same, I remember an Alex Rider spy plot about this. I knew USSR was well dodgy but JESUS

[@chrissirvid5845]

Always interesting, informative and entertaining. Great work team 👏

[@Redentor92]

Living in Yekaterinburg now. Thanks for the information, this and the Dyatlov pass are my "must see" places.

[@cleanerben9636]

yeah, the filter "broke" on it's own. Not a ploy to test the lethality of the product at all.

[@danielgautreau161]

The filter needed periodic replacement. The technical crew was probably not informed of the real nature of the facility, so they might not have had thorough procedures in place to prevent accidents.

[@matthewjones9237]

Can you do one on Hawaii? Like how it came under American Rule, the formation of the islands, the language, the queen Liliuokalani (idk how my phone knew how to spell that, cause I sure as hell didn't 🤣), and things like that? It sure would be cool...😎

[@garykubodera9528]

Agreed it should become a episode Simon and all the other people who help put this channel segments together should seriously do! 👍😃

[@eaphantom9214]

Oooh Even the brief description was terrifying enough! 🥶🥶

[@trentondowling1842]

I love your content. I've seen all of it. Please cover the Dugway Sheep Incident of 1968 in video for me.. it'll be a good one

[@nekovannox]

Today in "Videos that will get me on a list"

[@dawnpalmby5100]

I definitely thought I was watching an Into The Shadows episode

[@livewellwitheds6885]

i cant tell you how many times i find a cool video from a new/unknown channel. and its just you, again 😂

[@mauricedavis2160]

Thank you Simon!!!🙏😢

[@sayuas4293]

Makes you wonder what else they successfully covered up

[@95mudshovel]

I've become addicted to learning about disasters. it makes me so inexplicably happy.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@WasabiSniffer]

Jeez I keep learning more and more about the busy year of 1979

[@michaelosborn8613]

This was like an Into The Shadows Geographics cross over episode

[@MrSuperMichel1997]

I'm as always intrigued by the content, but today I'm grateful that I didn't get infect with Anthrax, however, I tested positive for Covid-19. Not as bad, but also not as pleasant. I'm glad there are videos which take my thoughts away of the few symptoms I have. I'm luckily not experiencing bad symptoms, just a few like you would have with a normal cold: bit of a fever, headache, coughing and sore throat.

[@--enyo--]

I hope you feel better soon.

[@MrSuperMichel1997]

@Liliana Bray Thank you, I appreciate it. Yes, I hope so too.

[@norikotakaya14292]

@@MrSuperMichel1997 I came down with the coof myself and it's like I've got a bad cold. Going on a week and I feel a lot better. It's been months for you, so you're definitely over it and back to normal, I hope.

[@Dee-0015]

Can you do a video on mega projects about the worlds largest nuclear plant and or the CANDU reactor? Pls

[@dmdrosselmeyer]

Magnificently drunk is right! Guy was nothing but two icy blue eyes glazed over with vodka scented tears staring helplessly out of a mound of calloused, pickled flesh lol

[@janstolk486]

russia : its not antrax it was bad meat . american sponsored chinese lab : it's not our lab that created covid , it's people eating bats ! the similarity is scary !

[@TexboyGamer]

If you saw the videos that got out of China early on during the pandemic it seems like some truly nasty stuff leaked out of that lab, people were dropping dead in the streets

[@trolleriffic]

Nobody would create covid as a weapon. The virus breaks down almost immediately outside the body, it's probably not infectious enough to be a good weapon and the mortality profile means it's almost no threat to healthy people of fighting age while it mainly kills the elderly and very sick. That's about the most useless weapon you could create - all you'd do is improve your enemy's economy by killing some pensioners.

[@TexboyGamer]

@@trolleriffic they let it out too early by accident. They were doing GoF research since 2012 and it likely wasn’t in its final stages.

[@Usual_User]

Ah yes, conspiracy theories without any proofs - my favourite!

[@kc0eks]

Love all the channels you do. Great stuff. I mean this is awful but.. nicely done.

[@cassandra5390]

binge watching this entire channel.

[@reecedrury4145]

Biolabs in the middle of a city? Umbrella been at it again?

[@Tony-zi9qg]

6:18 I've heard that before!

[@Tony-zi9qg]

11:55 Another premonition! Crazy!

[@norikotakaya14292]

Funny how you brought up defector Ken Alibek. As First Deputy Director of Biopreparat, his most prominent accomplishment was in creating a new strain of weaponized anthrax, known as "Strain 836".

[@danielgautreau161]

Yes. As said in his book BioHazard.

[@ethanharder5400]

dope vid

[@komm6668]

Only with Soviet Union do you learn about their mistakes NOW.

[@headishome8452]

So true!!

[@headishome8452]

I learned about this about 6 months ago...40 years late. Just like USA it takes about 30 years to find out some of my Country's secrets. I'm American.

[@iamperplexed4695]

Um, America, black men, syphilis anyone ?

[@theprogram863]

@@iamperplexed4695 At least that came out in time to end the experiment, save some of the victims, and get them restitution. When the experiment started in 1932, there was no treatment for syphilis, so watching the disease progress without treating them was all the doctors could do anyway. When the cure came out in 1947, that's when the scandal started, because the doctors could have cured them but didn't. In 1972, it hit the newspapers and the experiment was immediately shut down. Surviving victims got a $10 million settlement, a year later. Lots of scandals either never come out, or come out decades after all the victims are dead. Or they come out, but it's like Russia: everybody knows what happened but the government just keeps insisting that it's all a lie and will keep saying that forever. Armenian genocide is a good example of that.

[@wouven4517]

Would love to see the US comparison now. Timing of a video with such a theme makes me wonder.......

[@antondemetriades5294]

3:29 I am also on the lookout for secret lavatories...

[@PrinceBoo21]

Do you think geographics would ever do videos on famous haunted locations around the world? I'd love it if you could do a video on the Himuro Mansion in Japan

[@Puddlef1sh]

Maybe on another channel? Ghosts aren't real.

[@PrinceBoo21]

@@Puddlef1sh Well Geographics also did a video on the Loch Ness, which I'm sure speaks about the sightings of Nessie, who may or may not exist. It's less speaking about the existence of ghosts and more just the multitude of sightings and the history of the locations

[@Puddlef1sh]

@@PrinceBoo21 good point

[@EvoBeDevo]

Ahhh, Another one Boy if I had a quarter for every time the USSR did a thing involving bio-chemical or radioactive material and it went awry...

[@reginleif6703]

I love all your videos, but please be careful of burnout.

[@ThatOneGuyWithTheEye]

Comparing anthrax to covid has to be one of the slowest things I've heard you say.

[@Eremon1]

Let's take a moment to appreciate the migration of all that hair from North to South. That is a majestic beard.

[@Hobbes4ever]

and yet their current leader once said that the collapse of the USSR is a tragedy

[@russellfitzpatrick503]

... and that every disaster in Russia is the result of Western interference

[@sislertx]

Learn about the west nile virus and how george bush had it classified...go to gresham college on u tube and learn how our government covered it all up!!! And still does to this day..there are scientists STILL IMPRISONED UNDER THEIR SUPER.SECRET EXECUTIVE ORDER...

[@Hobbes4ever]

@@sislertx @Russell Fitzpatrick 50 cent party or the internet research agency / Glavset?

[@trolleriffic]

It kind of was and it wasn't. Obviously it was good that the Soviet Union with all its associated evils disappeared, but the aftermath of its fall also threw millions of people into desperate poverty and chaos that's still being felt today.

[@atenas80525]

Wonder if one day you'll be doing a video like this on covid

[@StruggleButtons]

Remember; this is only what we know about! Imagine what the were able to hide, all those tragedies lost to history. Simply tragic.

[@Gsoda35]

how about a heater filter to destroy anything that might pass through?

[@ZATennisFan]

This is a story of both the idea if you tell a big enough lie for long enough it becomes the truth.. However at the same time it's the story of some incredibly brave people who potentially laid their lives on the line to record the truth.... Back in those days if they had been caught they would have got a one way trip to Siberia or more likely a bullet in the back of the head....

[@pegasusted2504]

Sounds like modern day america. Well, upto the beginning of last year anyway. Still a wierd situation now though too.

[@russellfitzpatrick503]

... that can still happen today

[@leialee6820]

Sounds scary with all the bioweapons, gain of function research making man made viruses, experimental vaccines& drugs, nuclear capabilities & mad people, politicians & scientists all in charge of them.

[@eleanorgreywolfe5142]

The cover ups maintained today and with Ukraines war being dubbed a "special operation" just shows that the USSR never fell, it just got a new face.

[@Makem12]

The incompetence of government will never cease to amaze me

[@itsthatguy5742]

Any threat assessment involving Wile-E-Coyote is tops in my book. 😂

[@LaurieAnnCurry]

I have a question; because as a farmer, you live in fear of anthrax. It can live in the soil for decades and then when the conditions are right, wipe out a herd. It’s a lather, rinse, repeat thing. Can weaponized anthrax contaminate the soil the way natural anthrax does? Humans get infected with natural anthrax by coming in contact with infected animals/animal products.

[@melindacrews7712]

Yes its possible

[@andersjjensen]

I'm no biologist but I did pay attention in school, and I'm with Melinda here. Whether or not it's a weaponized strain (that is, selected or bred to resist antibiotics or vaccines) and whether or not the dried bacteria (spores) has been ground down to the individual spore the net result is the same once it's in it's natural habitat: the spores will hydrate back into living bacteria and start multiplying as best the conditions allow.

[@rosiehawtrey]

Yes, but worse because what's in the spores is designed to be much nastier than usual - see Gruinard Island.

[@trolleriffic]

They're viable for decades if not centuries and are very hard to get rid of.

[@bolastube]

Soviets:"Noone is stupid enough to put bioweapons inside of large cities. Except us!"

[@iamperplexed4695]

Every country in the world that works with bio weapons does so in major cities. Wuhan anyone? Atlamta?

[@andersjjensen]

@@iamperplexed4695 I know the Chinese have a reputation for making useless cheap knock-offs that fail even basic functionality tests.... but if you think the 'rona is an escaped bioweapon you're simply not giving the Chinese credit enough. I mean, it's barely any more effective than the harsher strains of Influenza. And they actually do produce fully working cars and shit...

[@OF01975]

@@andersjjensen maybe the omicron strain, but the original corona strain was pretty bad dude

[@andersjjensen]

@@OF01975 Here in Denmark they put the mortality rate at 1.4%. We've had flu variants in the 1.1-1.2% range in the 80s. Current strains are in the 0.5-0.7% range. I'm not downplaying that Rona 1.0 was nasty. I'm saying that as a bio weapon it's so laughably bad that anyone who think it was constructed in a lab for nefarious purposes need to look into what third world countries was capable of producing already in the 1950s - and then promptly remove their tin foil hat.

[@Hamzakhan-dt3gv]

Interesting video

[@Cupster3121]

Love your videos, COVID or cold, you sound unwell!

[@shaneanderson1229]

Imagine the amazing world we could live in if man didn’t seek power over his brothers.

[@TexboyGamer]

It would be a world of stagnation

[@thedukeofswellington1827]

When your country is home to the medical equivalent of Chernobyl and the actual Chernobyl 😂 "communisms triumph marches on" 😂😂

[@whatthedeuce47d68]

I wonder if the message at the end was aimed at the present situation in part?

[@utubedave47]

I was thinking the same. US gov't, start getting us oil independent again, and stop making us beholden to other corrupt nations to make up for the shortfall. Stop thinking about your own failed decisions and do what needs to be done to help the US and the rest of the world!! Get stuff figured out before you make knee jerk decisions to pacify a fanatic few, without thinking about the consequences!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jeepmega629]

Imagine all the other incidents we don’t know about

[@DylanCadenaERHS]

I can't wait for the video about the lab leak in Wuh..... Shit I almost got myself thought policed.