Decades of romantic comedies have taught us that words are cheap. Simply saying “I love you” is not enough to get the girl (or rarely, the guy). You need to add gravitas, to go big and bold, to make a grand romantic gesture. But these gestures are only truly romantic when they express vulnerability or make amends without pressuring the other person to reciprocate.

In the classic 80s movie Say Anything, John Cusack’s character Lloyd Dobler famously holds a boombox over his head and blasts Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” into the bedroom window of Diane Court, the girl who broke up with him. In the 90s romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, bad boy Heath Ledger’s character takes over the high school football stadium’s PA system to sing and dance his way back into his riot-grrrl love interest’s good graces. The aughts brought us Ryan Gosling hanging off a Ferris wheel and threatening to let go if his love interest didn’t agree to go on a date with him in The Notebook, and Kathryn Heigl jumping off a dock onto a departing wedding boat to bare her heart into a microphone to James Marsden and the rest of the wedding guests in 27 Dresses. 

Grand gestures are supposed to be romantic and uplifting, but in the real world, many of them would likely raise more concerns than spirits. After all, having someone risk arrest (Fever Pitch), throw themselves in front of a car (Hitch), or sacrifice their career for you (The Proposal) comes with an awful lot of pressure. This pressure can help us understand why most grand romantic gestures should probably be kept to the silver screen. 

Last year, Dan Pink, author of The Power of Regret, and I sat down on the “Love, Factually” podcast to debate the upsides and downsides of grand romantic gestures. In a survey, Dan collected over 16,000 regrets from people across the globe, and a huge number of these regrets, regardless of age, gender, or geography, involved situations in which one person was romantically interested in another person, but failed to pursue that person as boldly as they felt they should have. People reported incidents from 10, 20, even 40 years ago, and claimed to have regretted their inaction ever since. 

One person described meeting a woman on a train and spending an amazing train ride together. When they got to her stop in Belgium, he said he would get off with her, but she said no. Instead, they kissed, he gave her his mailing address, and they never saw each other again. The man told Dan he has always regretted not getting off the train with her in Belgium 40 years ago. 

In my research, on the other hand, I have found that it is harder for people to say no to us than we think. I’ve found this to be true when we are asking people to do us a favor, to do something unethical like lie on our behalf, and also when making romantic advances. While Dan has asked people about times they didn’t ask someone out, in my studies I ask people about times they did ask someone out—and then discovered that the person wasn’t interested in them. I then ask these people how difficult and uncomfortable they think it was for the other person to reject them. 

I’ve found that when we pursue someone who isn’t romantically interested in us, we underestimate how hard it is for them to reject us. And when we aren’t simply asking them out, but doing so in grand romantic fashion, that is likely to make it even harder for them to say no. 

Despite the different perspectives we were asked to bring to the debate—Dan’s focus on the regret people feel when they don’t go bolder, and my focus on the pressure they can put on the other person when they do—we were able to identify two classic rom-com moments we agreed were more romantic than problematic. 

One is the late, great Heath Ledger’s song-and-dance routine in Ten Things I Hate About You. At the point when Ledger performs this scene in the movie, Julia Stiles’ character has indicated some interest, but she is hesitant because she has been hurt before and is not ready to be vulnerable with someone new. Ledger’s routine recalibrates the relationship by making him the vulnerable one. He performs a big, bold, embarrassing act, during which all eyes are on him, and he is the one incurring the lion’s share of the social risk. Then, when the act is over, he doesn’t turn the spotlight on her and ask her to go out with him in front of the whole school like a jumbotron proposal. He simply runs off. 

The other example is Kathryn Heigl’s speech in 27 Dresses after she manages to board the departing boat, track down the bride, and commandeer the DJ’s microphone. Kathryn Heigl and James Marsden’s characters have already expressed their feelings to one another, and after being hurt by his betrayal earlier in the movie, she is the one who has most recently lashed out at him and gone off to explore an opportunity to pursue a relationship with another man she had long been in love with. Heigl’s romantic gesture shows that she has moved past this hurdle, forgiven him, and chosen him over this other man. Could she have said what she wanted to say to him in private? Sure. But the grand nature of her speech makes it clear that she really means it. Importantly, however, she ends her speech with, “That’s it, that’s all I had to say,” before walking off. 

In both examples, no one is being proposed to, asked on a date, or really being asked any kind of question that would require them to respond in an immediate, public way. The characters’ willingness to walk away after making a bold statement shows respect for their love interests’ autonomy. 

More than that, these gestures are attempts to make amends or rebalance the scales, rather than arguments meant to change someone’s mind. There is a difference between doing something bold to repair hurt you’ve caused or reassure someone of your commitment and doing something bold to persuade someone to feel something they’ve already said they don’t.

So, what are we to make of the man who spent 40 years regretting not having gotten off the train with a woman with whom he had such a strong connection? I would argue he did everything right. 

By giving the woman his address and leaving the ball in her court, he did “go for it”—while respecting her autonomy. The fact that he wished things had turned out differently doesn’t mean he should have pursued her more aggressively. 

That’s the trouble with grand romantic gestures; they can make respecting someone’s wishes look like giving up too easily.

Russian authorities told the World Health ​Organization (WHO) on Tuesday that no cases of plague have been detected among the contacts of a laboratory worker from the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia died who last week in undisclosed circumstances.

 “According to the test results, no pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases were detected among any of the contacts," WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in a Geneva press briefing.
Lindmeier, who said the Russian health authorities had been in touch with him moments before the briefing, added that all of the contacts are being monitored and “none to date have shown symptoms of illness.”

There have been conflicting reports about how the 28-year-old laboratory worker, named by local media as “Darya Shipilova,” had fallen ill and some Russian media reports are no longer available online. A local news source claimed that the lab worker was exposed to plague via a broken test tube, but local authorities have said there was no evidence to support this.

Lindmeier said an official cause of death has yet to be established.

Igor Kobzev, the regional governor of Irkutsk, said Monday the staffer had died from “pneumonia of undetermined” origin. Acknowledging there have been “different interpretations of the events” in the media, he said extensive laboratory tests had determined “no microorganisms related to the girl's professional activities were found in her biological samples.” He also said no new employees from the institute had sought medical attention in the past few days.

Rospotrebnadzor, the government body responsible for public health, similarly told state media the institute had not found signs of ​any accidents involving the handling of pathogens in the lab.

Lindmeier said that the WHO’s initial risk assessment, based on the information available to the U.N. agency, “estimates the risk to be moderate to low for Irkutsk, a low risk for the Russian Federation as a whole, and very low for the WHO European region.”

Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district in the Irkutsk region, said “comprehensive anti-epidemic measures are being implemented” in the area in response to the incident and that anyone who had contact with the deceased patient is being tested daily. Dozens of people who had been in contact with the lab worker have now been quarantined and are under observation by medical professionals.

Local media also reported last week that the inpatient department at the Shelekhov hospital where the lab worker died has been closed due to a suspected “particularly dangerous infection,” with local residents informed they will be unable to visit family at the facility. This has not been confirmed by public officials.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, in remarks carried by Russian state media outlet TASS, told reporters Rospotrebnadzor should be followed for official updates, “rather than listening to various rumors and speculations.”

TIME has reached out to the Russian Health Ministry, the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia, and Rospotrebnadzor for further comment. 

Amid growing online speculation, some social media users have likened the reports coming out of Russia to those that circulated in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020. 

But Dr. Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, stressed in a statement that it is “important to remember that pneumonic plague is a very different” disease.

“It is caused by bacteria, Yersinia pestis, famous for causing the Black Death, that remains with us today mostly in animals across parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas,” he said. "Pneumonic plague is particularly serious because it means the infection has reached the lungs and is nearly always fatal if not treated promptly. Unlike the bubonic plague which enters the body via infected flea bites, pneumonic plague can spread between people through respiratory droplets during close contact.”

However, unlike many viral respiratory diseases, he said, “plague is caused by bacteria and is generally treatable with antibiotics, if identified quickly.”

Remarking on the unverified reports that a lab worker was exposed to plague via a broken test tube, Clarke again urged caution. “It is not unheard of for pathogens to escape from labs, but an awful lot must have gone wrong for a lab worker to be infected by a broken test tube,” he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is closely monitoring the evolving situation.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told TIME: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is monitoring the situation closely with the State Department and our other interagency partners. The safety and security of U.S. citizens is our highest priority.”

President Donald Trump on Monday, when asked about the potential "risk of the pneumonic plague coming from Russia," told reporters the U.S. is "looking at it very strongly."

He added: "They called it pneumonia... but we'll help them as much as we can."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had earlier commented on the health event in Russia, saying “it seems there was a worker at the lab that was infected” and “there’s concern that could have spread, at least internally, so you’ve seen them do quarantines.”

“There’s very limited travel between the U.S and Russia, obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out and it could quickly spread,” Rubio continued. “We're watching and monitoring it closely.”

He emphasized that while he doesn’t think the situation, at this point in time, is cause for alarm, he does consider it to be “cause for focus."

As the situation in Siberia continues to unfold, here’s what to know about the plague:

What is the plague?

The bacterium Yersinia pestis has a long, dark history with the human race; it was this pathogen, spread by flea bites, that killed more than 25 million Europeans during the Black Death of the 14th century. There are three different forms, all caused by the same bacterium but affecting different tissues: bubonic, which can cause dark swellings in the groin and armpits; septicemic plague, in which the pathogen enters the bloodstream; and pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs. The pathogen can be spread by the bites of infected fleas, by contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or by breathing in airborne particles that contain it. 

What is pneumonic plague?

Pneumonic plague occurs when the pathogen infects the lungs. This can happen when the bacterium spreads to the lungs of someone with another form, or after someone breathes in particles containing the pathogen. It’s the only form that spreads easily between humans. 

The symptoms include fever, weakness, rapidly progressing pneumonia, and cough. Pneumonic plague has a very short incubation period—as short as one day. If untreated, this form is almost always fatal. Even with treatment, about 30% of infected people die.  

Can you treat plague?

When given early, antibiotics work well against all forms of plague. When a case is suspected, government guidance suggests acting quickly to treat with oral or intravenous antibiotics rather than waiting for a precise identification from a lab result.

Where is plague endemic?

Natural reservoirs of the bacterium exist on all inhabited continents except Oceania, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., cases are concentrated in the West; visitors to Yosemite National Park, for instance, are warned against feeding ground squirrels and chipmunks, creatures that can carry fleas containing Yersinia pestis. Every year, a handful of people in the American West, usually campers and hikers who have come into contact with rodents, test positive for plague.

A recent paper records a lethal case of pneumonic plague in Arizona that occurred in 2025. The patient in that case is thought to have acquired the bacterium from professional exposure to two cats with respiratory symptoms that may have been pneumonic plague.

Globally, plague is most common in Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar, according to the WHO.

Could the plague bacteria cause outbreaks?

Yes. In fact, there are often annual outbreaks in Madagascar, from September to April, and some of these outbreaks have been of the particularly dangerous pneumonic form, which can spread through the air.  

That’s why public-health monitoring to prevent initial cases from spreading is an important way to guard against wider spread. In its general guidelines for managing plague, the WHO calls pneumonic plague “of particular concern because of the high risk of triggering epidemics.” Any cases of plague, especially pneumonic form, are important to contain quickly, WHO says.