A technician at the Siberian Plague Research Center contracted the plague and died, and a female prisoner in Tennessee, USA, failed to be executed by lethal injection…Zhang Chaoyang shared global hot topics bilingually

At 12:30 on October 8, Sohu founder, chairman and CEO Zhang Chaoyang shared two hot topics in Chinese and English, the death of a technician at the Siberian Plague Research Center and the failed lethal injection of a female prisoner in Tennessee, in the live broadcast room of Sohu Video Follower’s “Zhang Chaoyang’s English Class”. Together with netizens, he learned English in the news and learned about the world.

The live broadcast first focused on a public health incident that attracted global attention. Zhang Chaoyang cited a BBC report saying that a Russian laboratory technician died at the Plague Research Center in Siberia and may have been exposed to plague bacteria. Russian media reported that nearly 200 people were in isolation, but officials quickly responded that there was no need to panic. The report pointed out that the woman may have been exposed to the infection after breaking a test tube containing Yersinia pestis, or she may have been infected after going on a field trip in the area bordering Mongolia. Plague is endemic among wildlife in the region. Laboratory testing is still ongoing, but experts say the case is unlikely to trigger a global outbreak.

While the pneumonic version of Yersinia pestis is nearly always fatal if left untreated, today it can be overcome with simple, widely available antibiotics. The report also mentioned that pneumonic plague is only contagious after symptoms appear. Symptoms usually appear within 24 hours and are severe and obvious. This means that any new cases can be quickly identified, isolated and quarantined, and treated before transmission occurs. The World Health Organization assessed that the global risk posed by the incident was low.

Later, Zhang Chaoyang shared a piece of shocking judicial news. According to the BBC, 50-year-old female prisoner Krista Pike from Tennessee, USA, was not dead after being injected with two doses of lethal drugs during a lethal injection last week. She was then taken to the hospital and woke up after being in a coma for several days. Her first words after waking up were: “Where am I? Who are you?” Her lawyer said she woke up angry and confused.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colin Slimer with his then-boyfriend. Experts and a team of lawyers said her recovery was unprecedented and that Pike is the only person in the United States to survive an execution attempt by lethal injection. A court has ordered the state of Tennessee to preserve all evidence related to the botched execution. Currently, Pike is restrained in a hospital bed, the governor of Tennessee has suspended all executions in the state for the remainder of this year, and the prison director has resigned.