Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
US Will Shield Drugmakers Who Make Hantavirus Treatment; Patient In Quarantine Tests Positive
Axios: Kennedy Offers Legal Shield To Develop Hantavirus Treatment
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is offering to shield drugmakers from legal liability as an incentive to develop treatments for the Andes hantavirus that caused a deadly outbreak on a cruise ship this month. (Bettelheim, 5/26)
NBC News: Spanish Government Confirms New Case Of Hantavirus
The Spanish government said Monday it has confirmed a new case of hantavirus connected to the cruise ship MV Hondius, which became the center of an outbreak that killed three people earlier this month. A Spanish national who has been in preventive quarantine at a hospital in Madrid tested positive for the virus, the Health Ministry said in a statement. (Silva, 5/25)
The Hill: WHO: Hantavirus Outbreak Is 'Stable'
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday said the hantavirus “situation is stable for now.” Tedros provided an update stating that WHO has reported 12 cases of hantavirus and three deaths, with no other confirmed deaths since May 2. The outbreak is believed to have originated from South America after infected travelers boarded the cruise ship MV Hondius earlier this month. (Mancini, 5/24)
The Guardian: Ebola And Hantavirus Outbreaks Prompt Raft Of Conspiracy Theories In Divided US
Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or “plandemic”, designed to upend midterm elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas. ... The hantavirus outbreak, which began on a cruise ship in the South Atlantic, killing three passengers and causing at least 11 to test positive, carries its own set of baggage in the form of conspiracy theories: passengers were crisis actors, or it was caused by Covid vaccines and Bill Gates, or perhaps it was an Israeli false flag operation and can be cured by the antiviral horse de-wormer ivermectin. (Helmore, 5/25)
Roll Call: Hantavirus, Ebola Highlight Political Division Over Disease
The Trump administration’s shake-up of the United States’ public health apparatus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has public health experts concerned about the country’s ability to respond to emerging disease outbreaks like hantavirus and Ebola. Whether that’s a concern for Congress, however, often depends on the member’s party — a reaction that should be familiar to anyone who lived through the highly partisan response to the pandemic. (Cohen and Behrmann, 5/26)
