World Health Organization officials have assured that the hantavirus outbreak is not the start of a pandemic. But as more headlines emerge about the potentially deadly infection, many are reminded of the COVID pandemic − and worried about the United State's preparedness.
"It's very much, we hope, under control," President Donald Trump told reporters when asked if he had been briefed on the virus.
But some said his remarks don't instill confidence.
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“You don’t manage one (disease) you think is going to become a pandemic with hope alone," Dr. Céline Gounder, a physician who specializes in infectious diseases and global health, told reporters on May 8.
USA TODAY has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.
Preparedness concerns have been fueled by the administration's history of actions that medical experts say weaken public health, from spreading health misinformation to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ending long-standing childhood vaccine recommendations. Public trust in health institutions also eroded in the response to the COVID pandemic — spanning both Trump's and former President Joe Biden's administrations — which included communication missteps that former officials have publicly reflected on.
In a hantavirus-focused press briefing on May 7, the Infectious Diseases Society of America's CEO, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, shared concerns that “we are not prepared" for public health crises.
“We have seen large-scale funding and workforce cuts made in the last year, not just to the (CDC) but to global health. Our withdrawal from WHO, our decimation of USAID and also cuts to scientific research,” she said. “So all of these things are having really profound ripple effects. This is a situation where you really are seeing crystallized the need for bio preparedness.”
Kayla Hancock of Protect Our Care, a healthcare advocacy organization, also shared worries that the Trump administration has left the nation susceptible to public health threats. Gounder called on public health officials and the Trump administration to be more transparent.
Not only is this much silence from the U.S. government "abnormal," she said, "the silence is unacceptable in the moment. It breeds conspiracy theories, and I think there should be day-to-day updates from the CDC."
Is hantavirus worse than COVID?
That said, hantavirus and coronavirus are not the same thing.
In a WHO briefing on May 7, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the organization's Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, explained hantavirus is very different from coronavirus and does not spread the same way.
"I want to be unequivocal here: This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic," she said. "This is an outbreak that we see on a ship, (and) there's a confined area. ... But this is not the same situation we were in six years ago."
In a contained setting like a cruise ship, close quarters can amplify risk, infectious disease expert Dr. Sukrut Dwivedi of Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center told USA TODAY.
"Health authorities are appropriately emphasizing contact tracing, isolation and monitoring of close contacts," he said in a statement. "The overall risk to the general public remains low, as hantaviruses do not spread easily like respiratory viruses such as flu or COVID-19."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Experts worry 'we are not prepared' for pandemic under Trump, RFK Jr.
