'This Is Not Going to Be the Next COVID'

"By Wednesday, after three people were evacuated, the ship departed from Cabo Verde. By Sunday, it will arrive at the Canary Islands, where the Spanish government says it can dock. So far, though, three people have died in the outbreak, and the ship's remaining passengers still need to be monitored for illness. Local leaders would rather the ship go somewhere else."

"That's probably (hopefully) a joke. But a perusal of the internet-both the memes and the upswell of concerned armchair epidemiologists-suggests that some people at least semi-sincerely fear that a pandemic is imminent. "I don't want your rat poo virus. I have summer plans," one woman posted on TikTok. (Hantavirus infects humans mostly through contact with excretions from infected rodents.)"

"That people are concerned, or at least keeping an eye on hantavirus, makes sense. But all of the epidemiological evidence so far suggests that the general public has very little to worry about. "This is not going to be the next COVID," Marion Koopmans, a virologist at Erasmus Medical Center, in the Netherlands, told me."

"Hantavirus is a respiratory illness that starts out much like the flu: fever, aches, and chills. In severe cases, breathing becomes difficult, and the heart struggles to pump blood."

The MV Hondius departed Cabo Verde after evacuating three people and is expected to arrive at the Canary Islands, where Spanish authorities say it can dock. Three deaths have been reported, and remaining passengers require monitoring for illness. Some local leaders prefer the ship go elsewhere, while social media posts and viral videos amplify calls for extreme action. Online reactions include references to avoiding hantavirus and comparisons to COVID-19. Epidemiological evidence indicates the general public has little to worry about, and hantavirus is described as a respiratory illness with flu-like symptoms such as fever, aches, and chills, with severe cases causing breathing difficulty and heart strain.

Read at The Atlantic