Public health officials keep providing reasons that Hantavirus is has historically been more “forgiving” than Covid.
Yup I figured it out. Covid is mild and Hantavirus is forgiving. So it’s all good.
— Dana Ludwig (@danaludwig) May 15, 2026
Yet these same officials, many of whom were involved in the let er rip strategy for Covid, are also lying about or are uninformed about basic facts regarding Hantavirus. For example, the CDC says it requires prolonged personal contact (whatever that is exactly). But that’s not true. There is evidence of past human-to-human airborne transmission among individuals who attended social gatherings with an infected person present. And there are strong arguments that the current outbreak does not require prolonged personal contact to spread:
Earlier today I spoke with the doctor on the ship and he confirmed something. CDC messaging continues to say “prolonged, close contact” but that contradicts: 1) what’s in the literature, and 2) what’s happening on this ship.
–> the doc told me a few who got infected/died DID… https://t.co/noQOKi76lL
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) May 9, 2026
Many of the reassurances revolve around the fact that Hantavirus is not a novel virus as it dates back to 1993. While that may be true it is also playing on a completely new field created by the Covid-19 and how Hantavirus behaved in the past is not predictive of how it will be now or in the future. Due to that uncertainty, many advise public health departments to operate under the precautionary principle, which justifies anticipatory action to prevent the occurrence of harm despite incomplete scientific evidence.
Thus far the positive tests have been limited to those on the cruise ship, but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way:
Not yet, but it’s still early days, given the long incubation period – it can take up to 8 weeks for symptoms to emerge.
It’s also worth noting that one of the passengers who left the ship early (before the outbreak was identified) has tested positive. https://t.co/X3SOVprbeK
— Cat in the Hat 🐈⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 (@_CatintheHat) May 17, 2026
As we wait to see if more cases emerge from contact with the cruise passengers, among the uncertainties that demand the precautionary principle is the question of whether Covid-19 has made Hantavirus more transmissible:
Wondering if hentavirus is potentially more contagious not because the virus has changed but because we have. This and covid both attack the endothelial layers in the blood system. So are folks who got covid more immune compromised/vulnerable to hantavirus?
— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) May 16, 2026
The argument is that people with repeated COVID infections have damaged immune systems, which makes it more likely that they can pick up a disease with a lower viral load than without the COVID infections. Here is a fairly long list of studies finding that COVID damages the immune system, leading some to conclude the following:
Repeat covid infections have damaged people’s lungs and immune responses.
This is *fact*.That damage makes people more vulnerable to further infections.
This is *fact*.In these circumstances, other pathogens, like hantavirus, have a better chance of maintaining transmission.
— tern (@1goodtern) May 8, 2026
And:
If you’ve had the first one, you’re more likely to be susceptible to, and damaged by, the second.
— tern (@1goodtern) May 8, 2026
A 2012 paper in Advances in Virology found that Hantavirus shuts down your immune system by preventing it from making interferon: COVID, of course, dysregulates interferon response.
The interferon connection, if there is one, is above my pay grade. But what’s clear is that basing predictions on how Hantavirus will behave on past pre-Covid experiences is planning for the best-case scenario when the situation demands the opposite.
For example, the reproductive number (R0) of Hantavirus is roughly two, meaning one infected individual could be expected to pass it on to two other people. Others argue it is higher:
Right, but we know from the 2018 superspreading events in Argentina that Andes Virus spreads H2H likely via the aerosol route with an R0 of 2.12, same as Wuhan COVID strain. If you don’t institute strict airborne precautions now, which you currently aren’t, there is a high risk… https://t.co/7bE9jJwCDY
— Dr David Berger BSc MBBS MRCP(UK) FRACGP-RG DTM+H (@YouAreLobbyLud) May 6, 2026
The R0 depends on a wide range of circumstances. For one, it is based on past outbreaks prior to Covid dysregulating global immune systems. Even if we are operating under the assumption that Hantavirus will behave the same way it did in the past, the R0 number from a 2018 Argentina outbreak was brought down to zero with stringent precautionary measures:
What I keep trying to say! There is a REASON why the 2018 ANDV (Andes Hantavirus) outbreak in Argentina was limited to 34 people & 11 deaths. It is because Argentina imposed an ENFORCED quarantine of exposed people. Doing the right thing = nip it in the bud.
— Ellen Brockaway (@happyhexer) May 15, 2026
So any public health official or infectious disease expert advising calm should theoretically be encouraging similar measures. Yet, it would appear they instead expect that R0 to come down to zero without the stringent measures imposed in Argentina in 2018.
So not only do we have a refusal to take necessary precautions, the public health establishment is still alergic to accepting inhalation transmission:
It’s widely accepted that hantavirus transmits from rodent excreta to humans via inhalation of aerosolized virus, so I don’t understand why we’re so reluctant to acknowledge the inhalation route for human-to-human transmission.
https://t.co/aGFDKS94Qk— Linsey Marr linseymarr.bsky.social (@linseymarr) May 14, 2026
And there is an inability to understand/refusal to publicly admit that the world has changed, particularly with regards to Covid’s effects on global immune systems, but also in other ways:
Optimism bias / inability to believe your world has changed. It’s a killer in medicine.👇 https://t.co/JCTweLOv2U pic.twitter.com/evLBMBGiu7
— Dr David Berger BSc MBBS MRCP(UK) FRACGP-RG DTM+H (@YouAreLobbyLud) May 11, 2026
***
Regardless of whether Hantavirus, aided by Covid, goes pandemic, Covid itself continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people per year and help other viruses do more damage.
The truth is, it’s becoming harder and harder to ignore this worrying rise in infectious diseases since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Even UKHSA is sounding the alarm
Lockdowns ended nearly 5 years ago now – we can’t keep blaming them forever.https://t.co/wUoyrfhUew pic.twitter.com/fa6UYgJ945
— Cat in the Hat 🐈⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 (@_CatintheHat) May 15, 2026
Even the Daily Mail (!) last week admitted that Covid is likely helping to cause a resurgence in meningitis:
When people regularly catch meningitis B bacteria, they usually live harmlessly in the nose – with around 25 per cent of teenagers and young adults hosting these bugs.
The problem is, Dr Edwards says, that Covid may have made our cells more susceptible to the bacteria.
‘The Covid virus gets inside cells by binding to its receptors,’ she explained.
‘When this happens, this gives bacteria a chance to also get into the cells – which is why many Covid patients caught secondary bacterial infections like pneumonia.
‘It’s possible that many of these young people developing meningitis now may have previously had Covid, and this has left their cells more vulnerable to infections.’
Yes, it’s certainly possible, as it is with a variety of other illnesses, but the ruling class commands we soldier on. Covid and its lasting damage disproportionately affect working class communities, of course, but you’d hardly know it.
The ‘left’ embracing the right’s anti-mitigation & COVID minimisation rhetoric, are directly responsible for the new pandemics which are inevitably heading our way.
Why? Because you’ve allowed those not on the right to abandon altruism & allow infectious disease to flourish.
— James Throt MBBS, MD, PhD, FRCPath (@JamesThrot) May 10, 2026
Now that such “return to normal” policies of mass infection have been normalized, would even a Hantavirus with a death rate of 40 percent cause a change in approach or would the ruling class hunker down while the working class is forced to keep the economy running?
Hantavirus is yet another opportunity to reset approach to airborne risk, as some are urging in The BMJ:
The multinational outbreak of Andes hantavirus (ANDV) linked to cruise ship travel should prompt the World Health Organization (WHO) to change its default response to the risk of airborne transmission of the virus. Hantavirus is a pathogen with documented person-to-person transmission and high case fatality. Therefore, the starting point should not be to downplay the risk of airborne transmission until it is definitively proven. The starting point should be the immediate adoption of precautionary measures to reduce airborne transmission, such as respirator use by healthcare workers, cases, and close contacts; ventilation optimisation; avoidance of unfiltered air recirculation; and portable HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtration in all enclosed quarantine and transport settings.
That is not happening. And so even if this Hantavirus mini outbreak is magically contained, the warning signs are flashing red:
Good news: so far, no new Andes Hanta infection reports from the US-based folks who were on the Ill-fated cruise ships. Bad news: since last year there have been over 100 Andes Hanta cases in Argentina, which is much more than previous years and a potential trend towards…
— Dr. Jacob Glanville (@CurlyJungleJake) May 15, 2026
As outbreaks worsen and become more common due to climate change and other factors, not only are we unprepared, but the public health establishment is actively aiding the viruses.
The point here is not IF there will be another deadly virus with airborne pandemic potential, but WHEN. And since the @WHO still cannot bring itself to specify airborne precautions for airborne illnesses, the likelihood that that virus with deadly pandemic potential will create a… https://t.co/qjRxXQ1tKZ
— Dr David Berger BSc MBBS MRCP(UK) FRACGP-RG DTM+H (@YouAreLobbyLud) May 9, 2026
Referring to avian influenza A viruses, like H5N1:
–> “Conservative estimates suggest that such a pandemic could result in up to 350 million deaths globally”
We’re not upgrading ventilation and filtration in buildings fast enough (yes, and other things, but this is where my… pic.twitter.com/KeYVObnkon
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) May 15, 2026
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