90-Second Read: ‘Empty and vapid’ CDC finally responds to Hantavirus outbreak. But experts say it’s too little, too late

The CDCs limited role in responding to the Hantavirus outbreak is raising questions, including whether it now has a diminished role in responding to health scares. The Hantavirus outbreak was reported to the WHO on 2 May; a notice issued two days later updated to seven confirmed or suspected cases. It wasn't until Thursday that the CDC activated its 24/7 emergency center in Atlanta to monitor the recent Hantavirus outbreak and classified it at its lowest activation level. Late on Friday the CDC issued its first health alert to US doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases after at least six American passengers disembarked at St Helena. The passengers are being monitored for Hantavirus in several US states.

But experts and former government health officials say the response by the CDC has been feeble compared with how it dealt with similar outbreaks in the past. I've never seen that before." The Hantavirus outbreak is "a sentinel event" that speaks to "how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. But how this situation has played out "just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now", she said. Most of the response has been led by the World Health Organization (WHO), of which the US is no longer a member. And right now, I'm very sorry to say that we are not prepared," said Dr Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

However, experts say the US is unprepared for such a disease threat. Three people had died, one person was critically ill and three others had mild symptoms. The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University, told the AP. Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X that she'd texted with alternative medicine medic Mary Talley Bowden about treatments for Hantavirus and that Bowden had recommended the horse dewormer ivermectin. The agency has laid off thousands of scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

The CDC's response is not typical for an agency that has in the past been at the forefront with the WHO in comparable infectious disease mysteries, both in developing ways to control them and communicate to the public what they should know and if they should be concerned. At least four US states – Arizona, Virginia, California and Georgia – are monitoring residents who were onboard the ship. Health officials in Arizona and Georgia have said the individuals under their watch are not symptomatic. California's department of health said it has "no information that the California residents are ill or infected". He pointed to Trump administration's preference for making bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing and public health support over channeling information through the WHO.