‘This is a non-concern’: Dr. Drew Pinsky on the severity of the hantavirus outbreak

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Oh boy, here we go again. Hysteria from the media over this cruise ship Hanta virus. It started the same way with CO in 2020. The story right now, 150 people were exposed to something called the Hanta virus on this very expensive eco cruise that goes from Argentina to the Canary Islands off of Africa. Three passengers are died. Three are sick right now. Two of the passengers that passed were 69 and 70 years old. That's tragic. Passengers have now been quarantined for several weeks. Even though the virus rarely spreads between people, it spreads through contact with infected rodent wastes, typically in confined spaces like a cruise ship, but it's extremely rare and it definitely did not come from a lab in Wuhan, China.

[00:00:45]This virus has been around for a long time. Dr. Drew Prinsky is the chief patient officer at the wellness company.

[00:00:50]He is a globally recognized addiction medicine specialist. Dr. Drew, great to have you back. So there's no known cure.

[00:00:56]It's got a mortality rate right around 40%. Why not get these people off that boat like right now immediately?

[00:01:03]>> I wonder the same thing myself. I that's exactly what I would do with it. I understand the impulse to quarantine. I wonder if it's some other country or the World Health Organization doing this, but the reality is people should get off that ship. They're not going to catch it from other people. Look, uh you you frame this exactly correctly. This is another opportunity for media frenzy, for panic porn. It's reminiscent reminiscent and echoes of COVID. So, oh my god, it's going to be another pandemic that it is not. We're not even if it were, we're not going to do that again. It's not going to happen. And secondly, the only thing I like about the way we're covering the story this evening is that it follows kamic kamicazi dolphins and attack beavers.

[00:01:41]That's about where it belongs, Rob. So, thank you for putting it there.

[00:01:44]>> I appreciate you watching. I honestly I don't understand it. So, this is It reminds me of CO. This is not CO, but these people need fresh air. Okay. If there is there are mice and rat dropping down below.

[00:01:54]>> It's we have 10,000 cases of tuberculosis in this country every year.

[00:01:58]We have raquettzial outbreak in Los Angeles because of being overrun by rats. Those are serious ment those are serious infectious disease concerns.

[00:02:07]This is a non concern. The fact that it's being covered on the news is only the echoes of co and the fact is it would only be interesting to infectious disease professionals, epidemiologists were it not for co. It is is a rare illness. It's a it's a terrible illness.

[00:02:23]It's nasty if you get it. But there are 500 more serious illnesses. More common, more human to human spread that we should be concerning ourselves with right now than this little outbreak.

[00:02:33]>> Ex. You get it from mice or rats like like the waste on bread that you're eating in a confined closed circuit place like a cruise ship. Two sound bites for you. I want to play one. This is from a passenger who coincidentally is also an online influencer. Take a look.

[00:02:48]We're not just a story. We're not just headlines. We're people. People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.

[00:03:02]There's a lot of uncertainty and that's the hardest part.

[00:03:09]All we want right now is to feel safe, to have clarity.

[00:03:14]>> Uh your reaction to that gentleman right there? My reaction is, what have we done to people? What have we done to this poor guy? That is horrible that he is made to feel that way unnecessarily.

[00:03:26]He's a young healthy dude. He's going to be fine. It literally is. It has to be.

[00:03:30]You have to get into the rat urine and sword aerosolizes. It's not going to happen. Now, cruise ships, outbreaks happen on cruise ships all the time of all sorts. Remember, Legionaire's disease developed on a cruise ship. We first heard about it there. This is going to be fine. That guy's going to be fine. But look what we've done to him.

[00:03:45]And I'm there's probably a bunch of people watching that have similar panic in response to these stories, which is ridiculous.

[00:03:52]>> Um, by the way, I haven't seen Dr. Fouchy appear on CNN. It's going to happen. I've been waiting for it. Just quickly, here is a representative from the World Health Organization.

[00:04:02]>> Our assumption is that they were infected off the ship, perhaps um doing some activities there. Um, this was an expedition boat and many of the people on board were doing bird watching. they were doing, you know, a lot of things with with wildlife. Um, so our assumption is they were infected off the boat.

[00:04:19]>> Okay, so 20 seconds. Um, off the boat, definitely not on the boat. Why would they say that? The World Health Organization, not a great track record with this.

[00:04:26]>> Why Why is news even talking to her?

[00:04:28]Number one, that's something for discuss amongst the medical community. If it happened off the boat, it's over. It's done. That's the end of it. It will stop right there then, >> right? Um, Dr. Drew, great to have you back on tonight. Appreciate the clarity and the insight as always. Thank you.

[00:04:41]>> Thank you. Information, truth is freedom is Newsmax. It's real news for real people.