90-Second Read: Experts wonder 'Where is the CDC?' as a Hantavirus outbreak unfolds on a cruise ship

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, Hantavirus does not spread easily. 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. 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. As American passengers from the ship are evacuated to a Nebraska hospital, the government's top public health agency seems missing in action.

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. 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. To President Donald Trump, "We seem to have things under very good control," as he told reporters Friday evening.

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. 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. 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.

About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying. But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests.