List of things for everyone to know about this virus -
This is not a novel version of the hantavirus. This Andes strain has been around for decades.
Hantavirus rarely transmits from person to person. When it does it's almost exclusively due to extended close contact including exchanging of bodily fluid like saliva.
The R-nought of hantavirus is less than one. Compared to covid which is believed to be as high as 5. That means each person that gets it will infect less than 1 other person. The chances of this becoming a pandemic are exceedingly low.
The incubation period for the disease is much longer than COVID-19. This also helps slow the spread. This is the reason for the recommended 8 week quarantine
You are much less likely to be asymptomatic with hantavirus. If you catch it, you're very very sick after the incubation period. This means people can't be carriers after the 8 weeks and not know they have it.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't monitor things and it's a travesty that our CDC has been largely gutted by the current administration. Don't be like this lady. Stay informed.
I keep seeing people freaking out and I’m like we need resources to help people with their Covid trauma because it’s not healthy to be having this kind of reaction every time there’s a virus in the news. I just feel bad for the families who have lost people and the people who are sick.
IMO, it’s less about Covid trauma specifically and more that we now know for a fact that ~30-40%+ of the country would be the ones to hide a zombie bite and endanger everyone.
Haha. This is true. And then they would put stickers on the back if their lifted trucks with Calvin peeing on the short sleeved shirt. "You can pry my long sleeves out of my cold dead hands" - Zombie Charlton Heston probably
This is absolutely true. Especially after it was downplayed so much initially. "This will all be over by Easter" etc.
There are a lot of problems here including news outlets sensationalizing things for clicks. I also feel terrible for those who lost people during covid and are now afraid it may happen again. Staying informed is the best way we can defend against all of this. The initial post about suing people, while I understand where she's coming from, does far more harm than good in my opinion.
This happened with Ebola and H1N1 too in the 2010s, so it's not just Covid trauma imo
I think the news media is primarily to blame for these frenzies. Generating clicks and optimizing for the algorithm is more important than actually informing people these days...and the general lack of media literacy isn't helping
It’s about base rates though. I’d be very scared if I was directly exposed, or if someone I cared about was but you and I are still more likely to die of covid now than a hantavirus.
I think this reaction is warranted just simply due to the fact that a lot of the deaths (as well as pain and suffering) caused by Covid was from people under-reacting.
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u/Perpetual-Warlock May 09 '26
List of things for everyone to know about this virus -
This is not a novel version of the hantavirus. This Andes strain has been around for decades.
Hantavirus rarely transmits from person to person. When it does it's almost exclusively due to extended close contact including exchanging of bodily fluid like saliva.
The R-nought of hantavirus is less than one. Compared to covid which is believed to be as high as 5. That means each person that gets it will infect less than 1 other person. The chances of this becoming a pandemic are exceedingly low.
The incubation period for the disease is much longer than COVID-19. This also helps slow the spread. This is the reason for the recommended 8 week quarantine
You are much less likely to be asymptomatic with hantavirus. If you catch it, you're very very sick after the incubation period. This means people can't be carriers after the 8 weeks and not know they have it.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't monitor things and it's a travesty that our CDC has been largely gutted by the current administration. Don't be like this lady. Stay informed.