Hantavirus response stokes questions about CDC
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The stricken MV Hondius arrives in the Canary Islands on Sunday. Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broke its silence on the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak over the weekend and began to evacuate 17 Americans from the Canary Islands to a special treatment center at the University of Nebraska.
Why it matters: Public health experts had criticized the agency for not updating the public until Saturday or sending its scientists to investigate, as it has in previous deadly disease outbreaks.
- Acting CDC director Jay Bhattacharya told CNN on Sunday that the agency didn't want to treat the incident like COVID-19 and cause a public panic.
Driving the news: A CDC team was on site to meet Americans on Sunday to escort them back to the U.S.
- Once they are transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which hosts the ASPR Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center, each individual will be assessed and offered support based on their individual risk.
- The CDC said it was also working with several state health departments for at-home monitoring, depending on each individual's potential exposure to the virus.
- The remaining passengers haven't shown symptoms, and the risks of spread of this hantavirus remain low, officials said.
The big picture: Infectious disease say a lack of information flowing from U.S. officials to doctors, the media and the public underscored the nation's diminished global role in the face of health threats.
- They questioned whether staff layoffs and turnover and funding cuts played a part.
- "How proactive would it be if it was more of a general public threat?" asked Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "How quickly could they respond?"
Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said the outbreak was the equivalent of a one-alarm fire, and that the absence of a more substantial response raises concern about the future.
- "We are going to have 20 fire truck-required responses someday when we see the next major pandemic pathogen run through," Osterholm said.
- "At this point, I would hate to see the audience come away feeling like, 'Oh, they got it. Whatever happened has happened, and they got control of it.' That's just simply not true."
The other side: "We posted a statement the other day and [acting CDC director] Jay [Bhattacharya] has had several X posts. So it's inaccurate to say we haven't been communicating," a spokesperson told Axios in an email.
