Three people are dead, a cruise ship is under international scrutiny, and Americans are once again questioning whether public health officials learned anything from COVID-19. According to Dr. Deborah Birx, the answer is frustratingly simple: the technology to prevent this crisis was available all along.
The former White House COVID-19 response coordinator told Newsmax this weekend that modern molecular testing could have been deployed aboard the MV Hondius, the Dutch-flagged cruise ship at the center of the ongoing hantavirus outbreak tied to the rare Andes strain.
“It’s the 21st century,” Birx said during an appearance on “Wake Up America Weekend” with hosts Kyle Lowder and Kenzie Beach. “We could have brought tests onto that boat. We have molecular tests. They are very sensitive. They are positive weeks before symptoms.”
Instead of utilizing available tools, health officials relied on symptom tracking, a method Birx says failed catastrophically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s what misled us in COVID,” Birx said, “and that’s why we saw so much spread.”
The outbreak has sparked international concern as the ship headed to Spain’s Canary Islands, leaving local communities anxious about potential exposure. Birx argued that early testing could have prevented both the panic and unnecessary quarantines that followed.
“We could have reassured everybody, crew and passengers, that they do not have the hantavirus,” she said. “We could have assured the community on the Canary Islands.”
Health officials have maintained that the public risk remains low. The World Health Organization has repeatedly emphasized that hantavirus is “not another COVID,” with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urging the public not to panic.
But for many Americans, those assurances ring hollow. Birx pointed to lingering distrust from the pandemic as a major factor in public skepticism.
“I think what people are reflecting on is January of 2020, when the World Health Organization said there was no human-to-human transmission,” Birx said. “The public has been traumatized by COVID.”
That trauma hasn’t faded. And when the same organizations that bungled early COVID messaging tell Americans not to worry, many simply don’t believe them.
Birx did note key differences between the two viruses. Hantavirus is far less transmissible than COVID or measles and generally requires close contact for spread. According to the WHO, the virus is most commonly transmitted through exposure to infected rodent droppings, although the Andes strain can rarely spread between humans.
Perhaps most striking was Birx’s revelation that testing and even vaccines for certain hantavirus strains already exist.
“Yes, there is,” Birx confirmed when asked whether hantavirus testing is available. “And there’s a vaccine for a different strain in South Korea.”
The question many are asking: if these tools exist, why weren’t they used?
Birx urged cruise operators and health officials to focus on deploying available medical technology rather than relying solely on watching for symptoms. It’s a lesson, she suggested, that should have been learned years ago.
At least three deaths and multiple confirmed infections have now been linked to the MV Hondius outbreak. For the families affected, and for Americans watching another public health situation unfold with familiar missteps, the frustration is real.
The technology exists. The tests work. The question is whether anyone in charge will use them next time.
