Professor Hugh Pennington weighs Russia's plague scare for Scottish readers
The Aberdeen bacteriologist's verdict arrived as The Scottish Sun was still covering the death of former Glasgow enforcer Paul Ferris.
The Scottish Sun
Story of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Should we PANIC about Russian ‘plague’ outbreak? Expert on new pandemic fears & ‘Black Death’ links
Should Scots worry about plague? The Scottish Sun put the question to Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, after the death in Russia of researcher Daria Shipilova. The description says she fell ill after dropping a test tube holding Yersinia pestis, the bacterium behind the medieval Black Death. Pennington is a familiar voice for this kind of question in Scotland: he led the inquiry into the deadly 1996 E. coli outbreak in Lanarkshire. Posted on Thursday, his interview is now the channel's busiest video by daily pace.
Most of the week, though, belonged to Paul Ferris. The former Glasgow gangland enforcer, who later became an author, died at 62 after a short illness, and the channel followed the news over several videos. As we reported here, a friend spoke about his death, and that clip has drawn the most views of any upload this week. A day later came a harder look: criminologist Professor David Wilson, who interviewed Ferris for a TV documentary, said he believed the rebrand as author and businessman was an act.
Around these sat Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer's remarks on Israel and footage of student protests in Paris, among fifteen uploads in all.
The channel is running at roughly four times its usual daily views, while the subscriber count held steady. Among the news channels near its size, the Daily Express and New York Times Podcasts are also well above their usual pace, and Janta Ka Reporter is far quieter than normal.
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- Channel
- The Scottish Sun
- Subscribers
- 478,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 561,391
- Videos published this week
- 15
- Video published
- October 8, 2026
- Video views so far
- 37,920
The numbers
Here is how The Scottish Sun's channel moved over the past week.
