Opinion

DR MARC SIEGEL: Hantavirus cruise outbreak is alarming but fear is spreading faster than facts

Here are three things you need to know about hantavirus in order to protect yourself from the fear and myths that are circulating

By Dr. Marc Siegel Fox News

Published May 8, 2026 6:00am EDT

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What the public needs to know about hantavirus

Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel explains the rodent-borne virus as officials race to track those exposed on the MV Hondius cruise ship on 'America Reports.'

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Fear is generally far more virulent than the virus that causes it. This is the case with the current hantavirus outbreak unless something about the virus itself has changed, which is very unlikely.

As far as we know, the only thing that this hantavirus has in common with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that sparked the COVID pandemic is that both are single-stranded RNA viruses and both sparked outbreaks on cruise ships. Of course, the current hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius is sparking memories of the Diamond Princess, which departed from Japan in late January 2020 for a cruise of the Western Pacific. The cruise ended up being quarantined off Japan for two weeks, after 712 of the 3,711 people on board became infected with the new COVID-19 virus.

But that’s where the similarity ends. On the MV Hondius, which left from Argentina, where the Andes strain of hantavirus is found, eight patients have become infected, and three have died, in part because the Andes strain can cause highly dangerous and deadly hantavirus pulmonary........

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