90-Second Read: Don’t worry about Hantavirus! (Wait, should we worry about Hantavirus?)

There has been much chatter this week about whether we're seeing the tip of the next pandemic, courtesy of the Andes Hantavirus that killed three and sickened many more on a different cruise ship, the MV Hondius. We know fairly little about the Andes strain of the Hantavirus, with an estimated 3,000 human cases over three decades. If we're lucky, this Hantavirus outbreak will peter out, or resemble the 2002 SARS outbreak: It dies out with the help of safety measures and because the virus doesn't adapt fast enough. A cruise ship floats around with infected passengers, is denied permission to dock, finally unloads people in hazmat suits into quarantine.

The entire desert Southwest is an enzootic region for Hantavirus, so people who come into contact with rodent droppings do have to keep that in mind. This outbreak has caused three deaths and about a dozen infections in a world of 8 billion people, she said. So the most expert experts aren't alarmed, and hopefully we'll skirt the Andes Hantavirus mostly unscathed. Do visions of the Diamond Princess, circa 2020, dance in your head?

There's been so much chatter, in fact, that we checked in with public health expert-types to get their take. People forget that there were some 2 billion COVID-19 infections, giving the virus a tremendous opportunity to replicate and mutate. While the World Health Organization assures everyone the Andes strain can be transmitted only through "close and prolonged contact" and is thus unlikely to spread widely, a 2018 study of a "super-spreader" event in Patagonia, Argentina, raises many questions. And even though the breakthrough mRNA platform that gave us the COVID-19 vaccines can be quickly adapted to new pathogens, people are skeptical about taking them.

The uptake for preventive vaccines, "even for the ones we used to know and love, like measles", has cratered since the pandemic, he said. ProPublica recently reported that babies are bleeding to death as parents reject a vitamin shot given to newborns that can promote clotting. While the 2018 paper surmised that the virus spreads by "prolonged or close contact," that doesn't mean strictly physical or bodily contact.