It’s pretty telling when you turn to USA Today to get the latest information on the hantavirus and you find it at the top of the “Politics” page. It reminded me of a joke in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic that goes like this.
One man asks another man if he has heard the latest on COVID. The other man answers, “No, I don’t follow politics that much.”
That said, the narratives are forming already. USA Today’s offering up the highly predictable narrative that makes the case that President Donald Trump isn’t ready for this, “experts say.”
In the accompanying video, Sara Moniuszko, the newspaper’s health, wellness, and lifestyle reporter, prefaces her comments with the fact that the leftist World Health Organization (WHO) has said this outbreak is not a global pandemic, “and the risk to the general public remains low.”
Moniuszko then goes on to say, “But still news of a potentially deadly illness is reminding many of the early days of COVID and prompting worries about potential future pandemics. The CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America says that we are not prepared for a public health crisis due to the administration’s large-scale funding and staffing cuts, withdrawal from the WHO, and more actions that weaken public health.”
The reporter’s talking points are a throwback to what painfully worked on the masses during the COVID-19 pandemic. She’s trying to make you worry about something that the WHO itself said was nothing to worry about. She’s trying to gin up fear on baseless worries that are unsupported by facts, instead of using good and accurate information to calm the public.
But then she gets to the meat of her message and her mission, which is to raise doubts about the Trump administration and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., ahead of any possibility that he could be called upon to lead the country through a health scare. She had to undermine Kennedy now before that day would come.
She also reminds us that Trump pulled the U.S. out of the grifting WHO, which we see as a good thing, though I don’t think she realizes that. The same for those funding and staffing cuts. The pandemic was not that long ago. Any attempt on the left’s part to make us wish the U.S. still belonged to WHO – or that we want to continue to fund bloated public health bureaucracies – will fall on deaf ears.
As for those “experts,” the public health field destroyed its credibility during COVID-19, and it hasn’t redeemed itself yet. The people at WHO may be starting to realize this.
On May 7, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus instinctively went back to the old COVID-19 playbook of trying to scare the world into coming back into the fold, one where he can dictate what freedoms you can and cannot have, and one that floods the WHO with a tsunami of money.
WHO Director-General says “the best immunity we have is solidarity” to fight Hantavirus while calling for the U.S. and Argentina to rejoin the World Health Organization.
“Viruses don’t care about politics. They don’t care about borders.” pic.twitter.com/7gYbrrq6xf
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 7, 2026
One day later, however, the WHO changed its tune in a huge way. Now, it’s trying to calm fears and put the virus into proper perspective, as it should always do, but as it never did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hantavirus outbreak is serious, but it’s no COVID, health officials say.
“This is not coronavirus,” said Maria van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization (WHO), at a press conference about the outbreak. “I want to be… pic.twitter.com/4kguOgtoxQ
— TIME (@TIME) May 8, 2026
What’s the reason for the change? It probably got a ton of backlash for its early hantavirus fear-mongering.
One of the ways the public health establishment lied as it changed the narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic was to pretend it was learning new information as it went along. That was a way to explain the evolving dictates and timetable. First, you didn’t need a mask, and then you had to wear a mask, or you were killing people. First, we needed to get to herd immunity to turn the corner, and then there was no such thing as herd immunity in this new context. First, you had to get the vaccine to stop the spread, and later you were told vaccines aren’t about stopping the spread, but rather, help improve your chances of a better and quicker recovery once you contract the virus.
The justification for all of this was, “Hey, we’re learning as we go.” This was a flat-out lie, and now we know it.
The same is true with this hantavirus. They aren’t learning anything new about spread. They already know it and knew it. It’s spread by exposure to rat droppings. You have to have some pretty serious exposure to those droppings for the virus to pose a grave threat to you.
Think about this: The left is using a handful of cases on a cruise ship far away from America to try to scare you on the unlikely chance you could contract this virus. What’s the timing? An election year, once again? Yes. With Trump in office, once again? Yes.
The left wants to use whatever it can, going into the warmer months and leading up to the midterms, to damage Trump. How do I know this?
Because just last year, on U.S. soil, actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe home. None in the American media tried to fear-monger you over the risks of hantavirus, even though Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
Notably, her famous husband, who had Alzheimer’s disease at the time, lived in that home with his late wife for a week before he succumbed to heart disease and Alzheimer’s complications. This is a major point. He was around her every day, and he was exposed to the same hantavirus she was, yet he never got the disease. Given his state of mind, surely it wasn’t because he was being safety-conscious and careful.
We know where this will go if any Americans contract hantavirus anytime soon, even if there is no connection to that cruise ship. The fear-mongering will escalate, and you will be lied to early and often.
You have a choice. Let the left use this to control you, or decide now to reject it. The only thing you have to remember is what’s at stake. If you don’t do exactly what some public health official says, some poor Democrat in some obscure congressional district may not win his race. Now, is that what you want? Would you still be able to live with yourself?
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