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

The CDC's 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.

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. But how this situation has played out "just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now", she said. At least four US states, Arizona, Virginia, California and Georgia, are monitoring residents who were onboard the ship. Most of the response has been led by the World Health Organization (WHO), of which the US is no longer a member.

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 agency has laid off thousands of scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program. 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.

Health officials in Arizona and Georgia have said the individuals under their watch are not symptomatic. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. He pointed to the 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.