The World Health Organization has a new refrain. They repeat it like a mantra, in every language, in front of every camera: “It is not the coronavirus. It is not the beginning of a pandemic. It is a different virus, we know it, be calm.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Maria Van Kerkhove take turns at the microphone to reassure the world that the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius will not become another global emergency. And immediately after, with the same serious face, they announce the shipment of 2,500 diagnostic kits from Argentina to five countries, recommend the isolation of all passengers in their cabins, order the disinfection of environments, and send WHO experts on board: two Dutch doctors and an ECDC technician. For a “low” risk, the mobilization is at maximum alarm. Perhaps they do not even trust their own reassurances.
Meanwhile, the ship continues its route toward the Canary Islands. Passengers are locked up like in a floating prison, the same script seen years ago with the Diamond Princess. Then it was about COVID; today it is about hantavirus. The mechanism is identical: minimize to avoid creating panic, but act as if panic has already erupted. The difference is that six years ago no one knew anything about SARS-CoV-2, whereas today hantavirus has been known for decades. Yet the reaction is disproportionate for a virus that – according to the WHO – “in most strains does not transmit from human to human.” Too bad that the strain in question, the so-called “Andes,” does indeed transmit that way. And experts add that human-to-human infection can occur through close and intimate contact. Words that do not sound reassuring at all.
The outbreak now counts eight confirmed cases and three deaths. Impressive fatality rates, although with such small numbers it is too early to draw conclusions. Passengers come from twelve countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. Italy, for now, does not appear to be involved. But a KLM flight attendant has already developed mild symptoms, and in Israel, a man tested positive after traveling in Eastern Europe.
The threads of the puzzle are widening, and the WHO follows them with the meticulous anxiety of a detective in a television series. Except that here there is no fiction. And the dead are real.
The question that no journalist has the courage to ask is this: if the risk is so low, why all these precautions? Why ship thousands of tests? Why keep passengers in quarantine? Why track flights from Saint Helena to Johannesburg? The unwelcome answer is that the WHO has learned the lesson of 2020. Back then, they minimized for weeks, and the world paid a very high price. Today, to avoid repeating the mistake, they tend to over-react, but without ever using the words that cause fear. No one dares to say “health emergency.” No one names the word “pandemic.” They speak of a “localized outbreak” and “low risk for the general population.”
Meanwhile, involved countries activate surveillance plans, Italian regions are informed, and maritime health offices go on alert. The paradox is perfect: the alarm is denied, but behavior is as if the alarm were real.
Hantavirus will probably not become another COVID. But the way it is reported – between hasty reassurances and drastic measures – reveals a sick information system. Citizens do not deserve half-truths. They deserve to know that the Andes strain exists, that it transmits between people, that the lethality is significant, and that quarantines are necessary. Instead, the double narrative is preferred: reassure with the mouth and act with the hands. Thus, trust erodes, doubt grows, and every new epidemic, even the most harmless, will be greeted with the same skepticism with which the Hondius crisis is viewed today. The Cry Wolf effect is around the corner, and the WHO knows it well. But they continue to play the same game, hoping that this time no one will notice that the wolf, perhaps, has not yet arrived, but the shadow is already long.
RVSCB
Bibliography
- World Health Organization (WHO), Press Statement on the Hantavirus Outbreak on MV Hondius, Geneva, May 8, 2026.
- Van Kerkhove, M., Technical Briefing on Hantavirus, WHO, May 7, 2026.
- Italian Ministry of Health, Information Note to Maritime Health Services, May 8, 2026.
- ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), Rapid Risk Assessment for Europe regarding the Hantavirus Outbreak on the Hondius Ship, Stockholm, May 8, 2026.
- The Jerusalem Post, “Israel confirms Hantavirus case in traveler returning from Eastern Europe,” May 7, 2026.
- RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Netherlands), Statement on Symptoms of a KLM Flight Attendant, May 8, 2026.
- Reuters, “WHO says Andes hantavirus does not pose pandemic risk,” May 8, 2026.
- Ghebreyesus, T.A., Address to the WHO Executive Board, May 8, 2026.
Archive Note: RVSCB – Archive of Uncomfortable Truths, May 8, 2026 “I am not interested in being loved. I am interested in being read after they have hated me.”
