A high-profile infectious outbreak, Google searches spiking, anxious videos on social media — and, almost mechanically, the return of the same fears and the same hoaxes as during COVID-19. The hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius is no exception. A breakdown, without alarmism : what the experts say, and how to tell fact from fiction.
"COVID colours everything," but this is not a new COVID
On 21 May 2026, NPR ran a segment on a phenomenon observed in the United States : the recent COVID-19 experience shapes how the public reacts to hantavirus and to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The signals described by the US public radio are telling : anxious questions on Reddit, videos on TikTok and Instagram, and a rise in searches containing the word "pandemic" on Google Trends.
But the infectious disease experts interviewed by NPR are categorical : the average American should not fear that hantavirus or Ebola will become "a repeat of COVID-19." The reason is first biological :
- COVID-19, like measles, spreads through the air — hence its lightning global spread ;
- Ebola spreads through bodily fluids (blood, vomit) ;
- hantavirus most often spreads through contact with the urine, faeces or saliva of infected rodents. Only one strain, the Andes virus, has documented person-to-person transmission — and it remains limited.
This difference in transmission route explains why a virus can kill and yet not cause a global airborne pandemic. It is also the consistent line of the WHO, which has repeatedly said the risk to the general population is low and that this is not "another COVID."
The return of hoaxes, copy-paste style
Where the comparison with 2020 is most striking is on disinformation. France Info's Vrai ou Fake fact-checking unit documented, on 16 May 2026, a genuine recycling of COVID-era theories. Four drivers recur, all debunked :
1. Bill Gates as scapegoat. A rumour claims the billionaire "already knew" hantavirus would follow COVID. In reality, the vaccine alliance he funds had for years flagged hantavirus… as it did Ebola, chikungunya and yellow fever — already known viruses. No "crystal ball," then : the same accusation targeted Gates during COVID.
2. Accusations against "Big Pharma." According to another theory, media and politicians "overdo it" with a "trashy virus" to enrich drug companies. The same suspicion of "global coordination" for industry profit circulated widely in 2020-2022. (France Info separately checked the claim that a vaccine is "already" on sale : there is to date no licensed vaccine against the Andes virus — see our article on vaccine research.)
3. The "reassurance" rhetoric. The mirror image of the above : minimising the virus to denounce a "media-political panic." It features figures already active during COVID.
4. Antisemitic theories. One hoax claims "hanta" means "scam" in Hebrew, suggesting a "fake virus" orchestrated by someone. This is entirely false : the word "hantavirus" does not come from Hebrew (it derives from the Hantan River in Korea, where the prototype virus was identified). Here too, the pattern is a recycling of conspiracy tropes that appeared during the pandemic.
France Info's conclusion is sober : this new outbreak offers disinformers "a new opportunity to chase clicks by recycling their theories."
"Why talk about it so much if the risk is low?"
It is the — legitimate — question raised by France Info's ombudsman. It deserves an honest answer, because it goes to the heart of this site's stance.
Talking about it a lot is not talking about it badly. The risk to the general population is low, and repeating that is part of informing. But a real outbreak, with deaths and an international investigation, is a matter of public interest. Above all, silence does not create calm : it lets the vacuum fill with rumours. Informing with restraint — sourced figures, a clear distinction between facts and hypotheses, a refusal of sensationalism — is precisely the antidote to the infodemic described by the WHO and fact-checkers.
It is also why phenomena such as the rush on FFP2 masks (demand multiplied fivefold in a week in France, per Radio France) reflect a post-COVID reflex more than a health necessity : French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist herself recalled that "there is no reason to wear a mask" for this virus, which does not spread like SARS-CoV-2.
Key takeaways
- The COVID experience colours the perception of hantavirus, but experts (via NPR) and the WHO agree : it will not be a new COVID, primarily because the transmission route is different.
- Disinformation recycles 2020 patterns (Gates scapegoat, "Big Pharma," reassurance, antisemitism) — all these claims are false, as documented by France Info Vrai ou Fake.
- The word "hantavirus" comes from the Hantan River (Korea), not from Hebrew.
- Talking about it a lot with restraint is the antidote, not the problem : an information vacuum feeds rumours.
- Post-COVID reflexes (rush on masks) ≠ a health necessity here : hantavirus does not spread like COVID.
On the real state of vaccine research, read where does vaccine research stand?. On the contested origin theories, see the Ushuaïa landfill and the index case.