Cruise Ship Virus
© Off-Guardian Org
On May 2nd it was reported to the World Health Organization that a "cluster" of passengers on the cruise ship MV Hondius had fallen ill with "severe respiratory illness".

As of May 4th, seven passengers had fallen ill, resulting in three deaths. Lab testing "confirmed" Hantavirus infection in two of the cases, the other five remained "suspected".

As of this morning, an eighth case - and third "confirmed" - has been reported.

"Confirmed" is a tricky word here, because we're talking PCR tests. We're all painfully familiar with those.

Hantaviruses allegedly asymptomatically infect rodents, and can spread disease in people via aerosolized saliva, urine or excrement. The early symptoms are "similar to flu - a fever, fatigue, muscle aches. They may also get shortness of breath, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting or diarrhoea", according to the BBC.

Person-to-person transmission is occasionally anecdotally reported, but a recent 2022 study concluded there was no evidence to support this..

That's why it was noteworthy that the WHO reported there were no rats on board the cruise ship, something that is a) very unlikely to be true and b) they couldn't possibly know at this stage, since the ship is isolating off the Canary Islands.

They were clearly prepping the ground for a "it's mutated to infect person to person" narrative.

But, at the same time, WHO officials have been downplaying the pandemic potential. Earlier today, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, gave a press conference outlining that this is "not like coronavirus", and that the pandemic threat is extremely low.


Eight people sick, pandemic threat low. Doesn't sound like big news...and yet the media won't stop talking about it.

It already has its own WikiPedia entry.

The whole thing feels very odd in a very familiar way.

Just a few hours ago, and totally unrelatedly, the Jerusalem Post published this story:
First case of hantavirus diagnosed in Israel after patient's visit to Eastern Europe
It's a very strange headline.

What do they mean by "first"? Are they just being click-baity? Or do they know there will be more? And yes, it was "after a visit to Eastern Europe"...several months after.

[EDIT: They don't mean "first ever in Israel", either. The article explicitly says otherwise:"this is not the first time Israelis have been diagnosed with hantavirus"]

The title implies a link to the cruise ship, but the body of the article details this is a totally different strain of Hantavirus than the Andes strain, and can't infect person to person. So why are they mentioning it?

Oh, and this "case" was again confirmed by PCR testing:
A later PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test was conducted to detect the virus's genetic material, confirming the infection.
So what's going on here? Why?

I guess we'll see.

Perhaps the most interesting discussion about this issue has been the "ethical dilemma" of countries like Cabo Verde refusing to let the ship dock.

So, are they trying to normalize this utilitarian calculus using a relatively small-scale example? Or is it about studying responses?

It has been suggested it may be suspicious that Hantavirus was touted as a potential "next pandemic" by GAVI back in 2021, but GAVI published a whole series of "next pandemic" articles around that time, on everything from Ebola to Nipah virus.

Just in case you were wondering, as yet only one vaccine has ever been produced for any of the hantaviruses - and that was never approved for use anywhere but China and South Korea.

But the good news is that Moderna have been working with the Vaccine Innovation Center at Korea University College of Medicine on an MRNA Hanta vaccine since late 2024.

Going by the Covid vax timeline, it should basically be done any time now.

Oh, and Moderna's stock value jumped 10% when the Hantavirus hit the headlines.