“The View” co-host Ana Navarro pointed to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s appointment as the Health and Human Services secretary as the reason she is concerned about the plague-related death of a Russian woman, remarking, “It’s so important that we have qualified people in government.”
Very little information has been revealed about the incident. As “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin explained, all that has been revealed so far is that a 28-year-old woman working at a Russian plague lab was exposed to “some sort of plague” and died within 48 hours. Russian authorities are reportedly monitoring and quarantining the people that the woman came into contact with between her exposure and death. Her death has been reportedly linked to some form of the pneumonic plague.
“When I hear this, I just kind of want to put my hands to my ears, curl up in the fetal position and say, ‘Wake me up when it’s over.’ This is why I think it’s so important that we have qualified people in government,” Navarro said in response to the story, adding, “I just don’t give a pass to Republican senators who voted to confirm RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health, knowing he was unqualified.”
“Things like this are going to come up. There’s going to be crises. There’s going to be health emergencies,” Navarro continued. “When I think of RFK Jr. heading HHS, I just say, ‘Girl, kiss your ass goodbye.’”
You can watch the full “View” segment yourself below.
DEATH OF PLAGUE INSTITUTE STAFFER IN RUSSIA: With reports of a possible death related to pneumonic plague in Russia that officials there are downplaying, ‘The View’ co-hosts weigh in on how Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the administration plans to respond. https://t.co/wf4w5lRjCw
— The View (@TheView) October 7, 2026
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said she is “concerned” but “not panicking” about the developing story, explaining, “What makes me nervous is we know that Russia has biolabs that are meant for creating bioweapons. This is something that should have been monitored by the international community. It should have been regulated.”
“We also have reports that the FSB, which is essentially the modern KGB, is who are monitoring the outbreak and the quarantine sites,” Griffin added. “That to me sounds like more of a national security response than a public health response. So what matters now: International coordination, our government getting as much information as possible and hoping we have a competent CDC to deal with it.”
“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg, meanwhile, pushed back against Navarro’s cynicism. While Goldberg acknowledged that the Trump administration has fired “a lot of people” throughout the CDC, she noted that there are still many competent workers there.
“Those are the people who are putting out the information that we actually are getting on what is available to us, what you can take, how you should be dealing with stuff. I am not going to assume at all that because [RFK Jr.’s] incompetent, they’re not competent,” Goldberg explained. “We’re not listening to these people who tell you to inject bleach. We’re telling you there is some competency there.”
“We should not have to panic the way we did before [during COVID] when we didn’t know who was doing what or [who] was in charge,” Goldberg concluded. Echoing that sentiment, Griffin called CDC Director Erica Schwartz a “highly qualified public health professional.”
