Trump’s health cuts complicate federal messaging on hantavirus

The federal hantavirus response has laid bare the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. and global health, renewing concerns among public health experts that the U.S. is not prepared for a bigger health crisis.

Career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been fired or left the agency, and there are far fewer people available to respond to outbreaks and to communicate with the public.  

That has largely left political appointees in charge of updating the public. 

As the administration scales its response, several top health officials who were previously some of the most publicly critical of the COVID-19 response must now communicate the accurate level of risk posed by the hantavirus.  

They face some serious challenges, including a loss of trust in public health — which critics say those key officials spent years contributing to — combined with a specific mistrust of the Trump administration itself.  

The rare hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius in the Atlantic Ocean has killed three people. More than 140 passengers and crew members were on board the ship when it left Argentina on April 1. 

In the U.S., 41 people are being monitored for exposure, including the highest-risk passengers who are in specialized quarantine facilities in Atlanta and Nebraska.  

Public health experts said the CDC response was slow to ramp up; U.S. officials did not give their first public briefing until May 9, almost a week after the World Health Organization confirmed hantavirus infections linked to the ship. 

While the agency had already notified states that American passengers had returned from the ship, a formal notice to........

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