90-Second Read: As Hantavirus outbreak unfolds, the CDC is missing in action, experts say. 'I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared'

But experts say the situation has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, Hantavirus does not spread easily. I've never seen that before." The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said. The Hantavirus outbreak is "a sentinel event" that speaks to "how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. It has been experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week. And right now, I'm very sorry to say that we are not prepared," said Dr.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China. Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. But how this situation has played out "just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now.

The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry. Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to "restore the CDC's focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency." The CDC has not been completely silent on Hantavirus. The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19's spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests. On Friday evening, health officials issued an updated statement, confirming the deployment of a team to the Canary Islands.