You know we’re inundated with so much information now that it’s tough to discern what really matters, but this cruise ship hantavirus problem has been lurking in the background for weeks and now it suddenly feels like it has gone from an Atlantic Ocean problem to a global problem.
When opening The Drudge Report this morning and seeing a headline that a rat virus is threatening the entire globe, on one hand it feels overdone and dramatic, but on the other hand it also feels a little bit like deja vu to the early days of COVID.
And don’t forget… we have a World Cup coming here this summer and it’s also the 250th birthday of America, so in the coined phrases of the past there are some pretty major “super spreader” events sitting on the horizon.
Here’s what we know…
There are patients from that cruise ship who have hantavirus, specifically the Andes strain, which reportedly spreads from person to person. Experts at this point say there is not a global threat and that the spread is not necessarily fast and furious like COVID, but viruses mutate and that’s part of the fear here.
Additionally, what at first felt like a quarantined and isolated boat with hantavirus has now become something different. We’ve heard that more than 20 people have reportedly left that boat over the last month and are now on land in different places. One person in Europe is reportedly sick and two people in Georgia are quarantined with no symptoms.
Listen… we’re not doctors and we’re not pretending to be experts. Experts will do what experts do, contact tracing will happen, and countries need to get a grip on something like this before it spreads. Let’s hope and pray it doesn’t spread because “Captain Trips” doesn’t exist… until it does.
The people on this boat are already going through a living hell, but if the planet ever went through that same living hell… we would truly be staring into the abyss.
