Hantavirus WILL PROBABLY NOT Be The Next COVID

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]I found a way to bypass the New York Times payw wall just so I could read this article to you guys because I have been seeing so much talk, so much conversation about the haunt virus and whether or not it's going to be the next co, whether it's going to bring about the next big pandemic, tons of lockdowns, and if we're going to see a repeat of history. People are really scared. Others are oddly really excited.

[00:00:24]So, I've got an article here that dives into this cruise ship haunt virus outbreak situation that everyone's been talking about and dives into whether or not the science around the haunt virus suggests that we should actually really be worried at all. My nose is itching like crazy right now. Good lord. Anyway, with that said, let's get right into this article because I have not read it myself yet and I really am curious to know what is the deal with haunt virus.

[00:00:53]Should we really be worried about it?

[00:00:54]Cuz as far as I knew before this, it is a rodentborn disease that requires you to basically put something that has been pooped or peed on by a rat into your mouth. That is a hyper specific requirement for a disease to spread and not common in the western world. So my immediate reaction to finding out that people are panicking about haunt virus outbreaks in America was to roll my eyes. So, we'll have to find out whether or not I was right to, you know, think that this is not really a big deal. All right. How a nature cruise turned into a nightmare. The haunt virus outbreak on the MV Honduius Honduis built off or set off alarms for a world still traumatized by CO. For those on board, the danger was much closer. The grim-faced captain had bad news for the people gathered in the lounge of the MV Hundis.

[00:01:48]uh one of their fellow passengers had died. I think Hundius Hundis is like um Swedish for dog I think or Hundius I think it's Swedish for dog maybe. I don't know. Uh tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes we believe the captain Jan Debroski.

[00:02:08]Okay, maybe it's uh actually Polish because that is a Polish as [ __ ] last name. Dosski told them on April 12th. He added that the ship's doctor had said the man was not infectious, so the ship is safe. So apparently already off out the gate, the infected patient on the ship is not said to be infectious. And that is what I understand to be true of haunt virus.

[00:02:32]Like it is very very hard for it to spread from person to person. And even if it does once, the idea of it spreading to from person to person a third time is even crazier. At least in like a place like America where we wash our hands, you know.

[00:02:48]Less than two weeks earlier, the captain had convened the same group for a celebratory toast as the Hundis left Argentina to sail the South Atlantic for bird watching and wildlife spotting on some of the world's most remote islands.

[00:03:02]Now, passengers consoled the dead man's widow, Mirim Mirjim Whisman, who is 69 of the Netherlands. I am so sorry for butchering her name.

[00:03:14]Sorry for any of my Netherlands viewers.

[00:03:17]Your names are rough for me. She and her husband Leo, also 69, nice had crossed South America in pursuit of rare birds. Some asked if she would prefer the trip to be cut short. Quote, "Everyone is here for a purpose," she responded, according to Ruhi Sinet, a Turkish documentary film ma filmmaker who was on the ship. She urged her fellow bird watchers to push on because her husband would have wanted to do the same. Man, she's down to continue the cruise. She wants to see those birds. Honestly, yeah, I'm sure her husband would want her to to continue the cruise. Within weeks, two more passengers, including Miss Sciprude Hoisman, would be dead. Oh, [ __ ] She died. Damn. Okay, hold on. It's spreading. It is. It is indeed spreading among the ship. The cause, health officials say, was almost certainly the Andes species of the haunt virus. They were in South America. You know, makes sense. A family of viruses carried by rodents that can spread between humans.

[00:04:22]Over the following weeks, a world still traumatized by coronavir by the coronairus pandemic watched anxiously as the passengers and crew of the Hundis hailing from at least 23 countries lived the lived the nautical nightmare of a potential outbreak in close quarters far out at sea. I think what a lot of people are worried about here is that people infected with haunt virus when returning to their home countries. You know, it's going to be a bunch of different countries that are going to see outbreaks following this cruise because everyone's from so many different places. As health officials sought to contain the virus, understand how it had be uh understand how it had come aboard and traced the contacts of passengers who had disembarked. People on the ship depicted their journey in interviews and social media posts. It was a trip priced roughly between $8,000 and $27,000 that began with the promise of seeing life in the wild and ended in protective gear and quarantine. The Hundis and most of his passengers eventually sailed to Tenner Tenneref Tenneref in the Canary Islands where local leaders did all they could to stop them from coming, including suggesting that rats might swim ashore and bring the virus with them. Honestly, that's my big concern.

[00:05:38]Wherever the virus came from, it's clearly on the ship. Like, I don't think they got the virus on land and then brought it on the ship. It seems like they were on the ship and their food got contaminated. Maybe their utensils got contaminated. All it would take really would be a rat climbing over all of the forks on the part that you put your mouth in and then everybody eats, you know, or or some of the forks and then everybody eats and then one person gets sick and then, you know, if that continues, if they've got a kitchen infested with rats, that can be a a non-stop like just more and more people getting sick with it. And so the real concern is will a haunt virus rat escape the ship and make it into one of the countries perhaps a first world country uh that doesn't generally have haunt virus problems uh that it shouldn't be.

[00:06:27]And um maybe maybe although then again haunt virus doesn't really spread voraciously especially if you're not living in closed shared environments like a cruise ship. I understand why people are so worried though to be fair because when you remember back to how COVID started, a lot of the first initial cases that were being talked about were on cruise ships. Do you guys remember that there's a Honda virus outbreak in the country they visited?

[00:06:54]Ooh, good point. Do you guys remember when CO was just starting up and people were just like talking about it spreading and there was a quarantined cruise ship and multiple quarantined flights that had entered America that and they were literally being quarantined because of CO. If I remember right, the first patients were sightseeing at landfall and had multiple rat issues. Okay, good. That that's a good thing to mention. Wyiver, the fact that it spread throughout the ship though over the course of weeks suggests that there are hauntus rats on that ship. And I think that the uh Canary Islands were absolutely valid to say, "We don't want your ship docking off of our coast. What if a rat swims off board? We don't want haunt virus here."

[00:07:35]I completely understand their reasoning.

[00:07:37]I I get it. As of Friday, the World Health Organization said that at least 10 cases, eight confirmed and two suspected of the haunt virus had been traced to the ship. It said two of the three deaths had been attributed to the virus and that it was strongly suspected to have caused the third. Around the world, dozens of people have been forced to quarantine in case they develop symptoms during the virus's incubation period, which can be as long as 6 weeks.

[00:08:01]That is pretty severe, actually. Now, can be as long as 6 weeks, can mean a lot of things, but if we take that at face value, that is a terrifying length for a disease that can kill you at such a high rate to be able to incubate in your body before you become symptomatic.

[00:08:18]That is to say, you could be or before you become symptomatic, but you can totally spread it. You could be contagious, you know, like you could, you know, use a fork and then someone else shares it and I think that can spread it. That's something people have been concerned about. Around the world, dozens of people have been forced to quarantine in case they develop symptoms during the virus's incubation period, which can be as long as 6 weeks. In the United States, where 18 people from the ship were in special facilities, health officials said on Thursday that they were monitoring 16 other people who had been on a flight with someone known to have been infected, as well as seven more who left the cruise ship in April.

[00:08:54]Public health officials have stressed that the threat to the general public is low based on what is known about the virus and the close sustained contact usually required to spread it. Still, scientists who have studied the virus for decades caution that it is unpredictable and that under certain circumstances, it can be transmitted without direct contact. Over the past month, the spectre of another pandemic turned the world's attention to a single cruise journey. It began with passengers sharing breakfast buffets, sitting together during wildlife and astronomy lectures, and lining up for cones at ice cream socials. But once news of the haunt virus spread, they retreated into isolation, avoiding an invisible p pathogen that had become as palpable as the swells that rolled below them. How much you want to bet that having gotten co before haunt virus is way more likely to kill you. Who wants to put money on that? 77 species in 13 hours. The Hundis sailing under a Dutch flag named after a Flemish c Flemish, it's a Flemish name, a Flemish cgrapher, was built to navigate icy waters and go to some of the world's most far-flung places. It attracted wildlife lovers eager to glimpse hourglass dolphins, furs seals, assorted whales and penguins, and rare migratory birds. Lecturers, and guides also joined. The ship began the journey on April 1st in uh Ushu Ushua, Argentina with passengers disembarking at various islands. Some joined the trip for just parts of the route. Passengers included a Turkish bird watcher who posted under the name bird detective, an American travel influencer, and the ill- fated couple from the Netherlands. back home in their Dutch village. Holler uh Hollerwick, the couple's backyard border uh bordered the woods. Back in their Dutch village, Hollerwick, the couple's backyard bordered the woods. They walked the quiet, orderly streets on the lookout for birds. Binoculars usually hanging from Mr. Schlipperude Schlipperude's neck and Van Jan Vankeen a neighborh said they traveled a lot in the months before the couple joined the cruise. They had trapesy trapesed around South America in a camper seeking glimpses of wild birds. On February 6th in Algarobo Del Aguil Aguila, uh, Argentina, they spotted 36 species, including the spectacled tyrant and the Choco Earth Creeper. Seems pretty likely that this is all the info about the uh the uh the the disease that we know for now. Yeah, the article just kind of talks about the uh the cruise except for here at the end, it seems. Here at the end, it seems to get back to the topic. When the ship requested medical testing, protocols kicked in under the WHO's regulations.

[00:11:46]Officials in Cape Verde received the alarm loud and clear. So did an anxious world. "This makes us jump," said Lynn an Lindstrand, a representative for the WHO in Cape Verde, adding that at first she feared it could have been a new co specialist boarded the ship to seek uh to treat sick passengers and provide protective equipment. Three more people were medivvaced out, including the ship's doctor and a British guide. The body of the German woman remained aboard. Passengers did not know when or where they could disembark. "These were the worst days," said Javier Padilla uh Padilla. Padilla uh Spain's Secretary of State uh for health, who received status reports from the Spanish passengers.

[00:12:28]"Pape Verde argued that it was too small a country to handle the outbreak. The WHO reached out to Spain to see if the ship could go to the Canary Islands.

[00:12:37]Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed, motivated, he said, by a sense of solidarity in a global health crisis.

[00:12:45]Local leaders in the Canary Islands fought his decision. But at 7:15 p.m. on May 6th, the ship left for the islands, and the morale on board improved. Bird watching also resumed. It really does seem like it's a bit like fearing a rabies outbreak. Is it terrifying if it happens? Will it be borderline apocalyptic? Yes. But how likely is it?

[00:13:09]Extremely unlikely. To the point where it is like the it's like talking about the big one happening like the San Andreas fault line finally going and a massive like city destroying earthquake uh spreading out across the entire West Coast. Like that is a very real possibility. And if it does happen, it is no question apocalyptic. But whether or not it will happen at all is or anytime in our lifetimes is very very up in the air, very unlikely. And that seems to be the case with the haunt virus. Well, I think a lot of people are valid to be afraid that this could be the next co. All the evidence suggests that while it is definitely a concern for the people on board these uh this cruise ship, it's probably not going to be the next global pandemic. This is probably not going to be the next co.

[00:14:02]But hey, if I end up being wrong, then clip me because I'll probably have much worse things to worry about than being wrong if I'm wrong. Uh such as dying of haunt virus. I do not want to die of haunt virus.