Hantavirus cruise ship breakout leads to three people being evacuated | RISING

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:05]Three passengers were medically evacuated on Wednesday from a cruise ship that's dealing with a deadly hanta virus outbreak. The ship started its journey in Argentina last month with almost 150 people on board. Signs of illness started a few days later and three passengers have died. The World Health Organization since stepped in to investigate confirmed at least five cases. This virus typically spreads to humans from rodents, but according to health officials, this is a specific strain of the haunt virus known as the Andes strain, which can spread from person to person in rare cases. The WHO maintains the risk to the public from this outbreak is low. Now, some passengers who were on board have already returned home, including a few Americans. The rest of the passengers have been told to isolate in their cabins as the ship now heads to the Canary Islands. The Spanish Health Ministry says the ship can dock there despite objections from the local government. Listen, if I was the in the local government in the Canary Islands, I would be like about face right now.

[00:01:06]Sit. You guys have to marinate in the water. I'm sorry. This is so insane and crazy.

[00:01:10]>> I would go a step further. No.

[00:01:12]>> And I say something very controversial.

[00:01:14]>> Remember, people are affected by this and three people have died.

[00:01:20]>> Nuke that ship orbit.

[00:01:22]>> Don't say that. We will not do CO again.

[00:01:25]Not doing it. Not going to happen.

[00:01:27]>> Officials are warning people this is not COP.

[00:01:32]Bottom of the ocean.

[00:01:33]>> There's people on there.

[00:01:34]>> I'm being a little facicious. Obviously, we should not do that, but we should take strong measure. Like people have been let off the boat because they're known to be clear because this thing has a wicked long incubation period. That's the scary thing. you can have it for several weeks before showing any symptoms and then it is a very deadly disease uh when you do if you do develop symptoms. Uh that's all bad. Uh the good news is usually it only spreads from rodents. Now it could again because the incubation period is so long the couple who died there was a couple who died and they had been in uh where was it? It was ar it was somewhere in South America and people yeah came all over.

[00:02:10]>> So they they could have encountered rodents and so it's not like it was even rodents on the ship. It's like they could have encountered before they got on the ship.

[00:02:17]>> Yeah. But now they're saying the strain is person to person. So that's problematic because what does that mean?

[00:02:22]That's a very rare strain of this haunt virus. I think we're all like have liked a little bit >> spread from people. But the concern is it mutating to do that more.

[00:02:32]>> The world has a bit of kind experiment Dr. Fouchy wants to do to make it easier to spread from person to person.

[00:02:38]>> Let's push Dr. Fouchy on the bench real quick. Let's stick right here.

[00:02:43]The world has PTSD from COVID. People don't remember that time.

[00:02:47]>> I have PTSD.

[00:02:48]>> The world does though. It wasn't a great time. And if you know, if you were lucky enough to be alive, employed, all the things, great. If it worked out for you in some financial way because people got back to work or got to buy homes or whatever because the markets went there, but millions of people died and it was a terrible time. People definitely have PTSD from this. So to think that there's any every time I think in like there's been like two different times in the news where things bubble up and it's like oh virus coming up and I know there's been fanatical coverage of it because people are just terrified. I think the news reporters, right, we hear it again and everybody's like, "What are you talking about?" Because no one took I remember being in the newsroom where they kept talking about this Corona virus, corona virus, and we were just going about our day like, "Okay, let's get to the next news. It'll blow over.

[00:03:29]It'll blow over." And it did not. And so people are extra cautious looking at this cruise ship. And then if you're like me, I literally have a particular fear of cruise ships. Just like Yes.

[00:03:39]Just like the isolation of it all. Like the fact that you're floating on the ship and that you're contained, your room is really small. I've been on several cruises growing up with my my family. That was like my mom's favorite thing to do. I like cruises. I I went on cru I haven't been on one since I was a kid. I went on with my family. It was a great time.

[00:03:53]>> Yeah, I know. I have like a little bit of a phobia cuz you're claustrophobic.

[00:03:56]Yeah. In there. It just feels very stuck.

[00:03:58]>> Sickness. You usually can't tell depending on how big the ship is. You can't even tell you're moving was my experience.

[00:04:04]>> Well, I can tell. I look out the window and see the boat. You know what I mean?

[00:04:07]Moving around.

[00:04:08]>> But I think that this is the worst case scenario for folks that were trying to enjoy their vacation and now you have an outbreak like this. This is stuff that nightmares are made of >> certainly it is a nightmare. You go on a tropical vacation, you contract some very rare rare disease and and die. It's >> and how did Spain get the short end of the stick? Like you guys have to deal with this like they're probably like what how do what how do we roll the dice on this one? and to have the local government arguing that they >> I understand why they're accept but as long as they can't they shouldn't get off the ship as long as the ship can dock there and just don't go you know take reasonable precaut don't go near the ship or I guess they have to maybe they have to give ply supplies to the ship you know go in full biohazard gear that kind of thing you know >> yeah if I was the family member of the people on board I'd be like when can my family come home also >> yes but not until we know it's safe we can do quarantines for knowing ingly exposed people to this kind of >> Wait, are you advocating for quarantines?

[00:05:03]>> I I'm I am perfectly fine with public health mitigation efforts at this stage.

[00:05:09]>> They should all be having masks on on that ship then, right? You're okay with masks. You're okay with all the things.

[00:05:13]>> We're at the stage where we can still prevent the outbreak.

[00:05:16]>> So masks work in this instance.

[00:05:18]>> Well, I I don't know if they work or not to spread to to stop the But >> so Dr. Fouchy could you we could use his expertise to bring him back in this conversation. He could join what he would like to do. like it's not contagious enough. How can I do experiments on the virus to make it even more contagious? So, no, we'll keep him, you know, in prison hopefully and they'll be we'll keep the people on the ship until we know it's safe for them to leave and we'll stop the outbreak.

[00:05:41]>> It's interesting to me that um you can see in this moment that's way less chaotic than the CO outbreak, but there's still an outbreak about how even in just you say, "Oh, the ship has to go. we need to take dramatic measures but your mind went to a place of like this needs to be handled immediately and you don't understand why there wasn't frantic energy or why there was frantic energy amongst the world's top leaders world health organization Dr. Fouchy in a moment that was unprecedented country on a larger scale.

[00:06:07]>> Lindsay, I supported >> criticized the response often.

[00:06:10]>> Answer. I I supported the initial two weeks to slow I what I was told was that we're about to be overwhelmed and have this disease spread through the entire planet and a lot of people are going to get really sick and our hospitals need time to prepare themselves to get this onslaught of patients. So, we want everyone to shelter in place and do all those these crazy things for a brief window while we get the hospitals ready.

[00:06:38]That's what we were sold and that plan that made sense to me and I said, "Of course, we'll do that." So, we agreed to do that. And then there was this pull of the rug where it went from that to actually what we mean is you're going to do this just indefinitely until we have a vaccine. I'm like, "Okay, that's going to be months and months and months."

[00:06:54]Then it was we'll be like this until everyone takes it. Okay. Hey, then I'll be like this until there's no more.

[00:07:00]>> What if the haunt virus starts to spread more and more and they say no, stay on the ship longer, longer, keep ch would you be okay with that just to avoid having >> I'm okay with conveniencing 20 people.

[00:07:09]I'm not in okay with broad measures preventative for the entire planet >> because it's not you because you're not on that ship now you're not bothered about reasonable versus unreasonable. I think most people can tell that >> trying to protect the world with a larger outbreak is reasonable.

[00:07:23]>> Well, I think we could well me too. I think we could debate this further. But that does it for us on Rising Live. Look out for more exclusive YouTube content coming your way today. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe to The Hills YouTube channel so you never miss any content. And for those of you who like to listen while on the go, we're now available anywhere you listen to podcasts. See you later.