Many people around the world are in danger after Hantavirus infected at least 11 people on a cruise ship and killed three. According to NPR, the American travelers returned to the US this week and are currently in a quarantine facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where they will be monitored for more than a month.
All of the people aboard the MV Hondius who tested positive for hantavirus have Andes virus, the only strain of hantavirus known to be contagious between humans. All common forms of hantavirus need to be contracted through direct contact with rodents. And that appears to be what happened in New York as well.
Kate Ott, director of public health in Ontario County, New York, tells ABC 13 that the suspected case of hantavirus in that area is a person who has been sick for a few weeks and is experiencing fatigue, pain and drowsiness. The case is believed to be mild and has no known connection to the cruise ship that everyone is worried about.
According to ABC 13, Ott said, “The hantavirus that occurs in the U.S. doesn’t spread from person to person. It spreads between rats and humans. If I have it and I sneeze on you, you won’t get it.” Ott says a sample from the high school student has been sent to the CDC for confirmation.
The world is naturally concerned about the emergence of hantaviruses, which can spread from person to person, as we can all remember the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020. But there are several different reasons why health experts are less concerned about hantavirus. For starters, this is not a new virus. It’s rare, but there’s no evidence it’s actually something new, as was the case with COVID-19.
Health experts also claim that Andes virus is difficult to contract from another person, requiring close contact and droplet transmission. But there are questions about how so many people on the ship got hantavirus without direct contact. We don’t have a concrete answer to this yet.
Perversely, the one thing that humanity may benefit from in this case is the high lethality of hantaviruses. When you have a virus that kills quickly, it is difficult for the virus to spread. In some people, COVID-19 may be so mild that it may be able to spread widely, causing people to feel sick but not necessarily die. Society’s most vulnerable have clearly paid the price, as the global Covid death toll is thought to be around 18 million, according to the Lancet.
Whatever you think about the possibility of another pandemic (and, again, health experts say it’s unlikely here) it’s probably best to ignore whatever Polymarket account on X is spreading. For whatever reason, PolyMarkets spreads some of the most sensational garbage on social media, which is doing nothing for the credibility of the prediction markets.
Again, Polymarket clearly has an incentive to create confusion about what is happening on the Internet. Selling them the dream of getting rich requires people betting on the least likely outcome. According to CNBC, the simple fact is that most people who bet on prediction markets lose money.
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