President Donald Trump gave people serious déjà vu with his vague non-answer when asked by a reporter if Americans should be should be "concerned" about the spread of hantavirus after an uncontained outbreak on a cruise ship.
Three people aboard the ship have died from suspected infection with hantavirus and five of the eight suspected cases have now been confirmed through laboratory testing, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a media briefing that the confirmed infections involve the Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain known to allow limited person-to-person transmission.
Hantaviruses are most commonly spread through exposure to infected rodents, and symptoms can include fever, headaches, muscle pain, abdominal discomfort, nausea, and vomiting. While there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for hantavirus, the WHO notes that early medical intervention can significantly improve outcomes.
The cruise, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, departed from Ushuaia in Argentina on April 1 and is now headed toward the Canary Islands with 140 passengers and crew still on board. The company said Thursday that no one currently aboard has reported symptoms consistent with hantavirus.
The WHO said three evacuees were transferred to the Netherlands for treatment: two are hospitalized in stable condition, while a third—now in Germany—is asymptomatic.
Two additional patients are receiving care in South Africa and Switzerland. Both the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized that the current public health risk remains low and that this virus is not comparable to COVID-19 in terms of spread or threat level.
And when a member of the press asked if he'd been briefed about the hantavirus, Trump had this to say:
"We should be fine. It's very much, we hope, under control. It was the ship and I think we're going to make a full report about it tomorrow."
“We have a lot of people, a lot of great people, studying it. It should be fine, we hope.”
When pressed further about how much Americans should be concerned, he said:
"I hope not. I mean, I hope not. We're doing the best we can."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
That doesn't exactly inspire confidence when you remember Trump's response to COVID-19 during his first administration.
Six years ago, the United States was grappling with the initial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country had entered shutdowns the month prior that had severe economic consequences, leaving businesses and industries on the brink of collapse.
Well over 1.2 million Americans have died since the pandemic began. Many of these people could have been saved had Trump's administration taken the situation seriously from the start.
Many prominent Trump surrogates have downplayed the fact that Trump raged against shutdowns, attacked healthcare professionals, frequently undermined the efforts of the White House COVID-19 Task Force, and openly pushed conspiracy theories about the virus and the vaccination campaign that were embraced by his followers, hindering the country's ability to rebound from the pandemic's economic shock.
According to a 2021 Lancet commission tasked with assessing Trump's health policy record, the US could have prevented 40% of COVID-19 deaths if its death rates had aligned with those in other high-income G7 countries. The commission stated that Trump "brought misfortune to the USA and the planet" during his four-year tenure.
The commission emphasized the increasing evidence that Trump's rollbacks of regulations led to a rise in death and disease. From 2016 to 2019, annual deaths related to environmental and occupational factors surged by more than 22,000, reversing a trend of steady decline.
The negative effects of the rescinded regulations were especially pronounced in states that had been strong supporters of Trump in 2016, which were also the most impacted by cuts to health insurance coverage, as the report noted.
Given all this, Trump's answer isn't sitting well with people.
Buckle up.
@thekalenallen/Threads
U.S. Mint
