90-Second Read: Why Hantavirus is not like COVID, according to infectious disease experts

Infectious disease experts have sought to reassure people that the Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak poses very low risks to the wider public. According to infectious disease experts, there are a few key characteristics that set this virus apart from the one that triggered a global pandemic in 2020. Let me be crystal clear: The risk of Hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low.

Hantavirus "infects deep inside the lungs, not the upper respiratory tract, so it's much harder to cough or breathe out enough virus into the air" for it to be easily transmissible. Hantavirus is rare and is typically spread by rodents in dry climates. The the Andes virus strain involved in the cruise ship outbreak is found in South America and is the only strain known to spread from person to person.

Gounder says the longer incubation period has given health officials an advantage of more time to develop their response to the outbreak. With COVID-19, the incubation period is much shorter, meaning the virus spreads more quickly. If you see a wet log in a stone fireplace, that's going to smolder a little bit and then it's going to die out.