A person becomes infected primarily from sick rodents through aerosols and dust from their urine and feces.
The outbreak of hantavirus on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius has frightened the entire world. Medical professionals confirmed three deaths and eight infections, promising that the disease would not become the new COVID-19; however, hantavirus has already been surrounded by fakes on social media.
Hantavirus — a consequence of anti-COVID vaccinations?
One of the assumptions that has gained popularity on the internet in recent days is that hantavirus is allegedly a side effect of COVID-19 vaccinations. For example, a post by former British MP Andrew Bridgen on this topic gathered over 2,000 reactions on Facebook.
"The list of side effects of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine includes hantavirus pulmonary infection!" Bridgen wrote against the backdrop of the outbreak and accompanied the post with a screenshot of medical documentation.
The pharmaceutical company Pfizer confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the document, which was submitted in 2021 to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Company representatives explained that it lists all medical conditions experienced by the subjects during the observation period, not specific side effects of the vaccine.
The list was compiled with the aim of subsequently determining any correlation between these issues and the anti-COVID vaccine, and hantavirus infection does not appear in the final list of side effects. Among the serious but rare complications associated with the vaccine, the company mentions myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardial sac), and acute allergic reactions.
Among the more common and less severe side effects, for example, are rash and swelling at the injection site, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, and diarrhea.
Hantavirus — man-made?
Reuters also debunked another rumor that arose from a misreading of documents by internet users. It was claimed on Facebook that the submission of U.S. and international patents for sequencing the hantavirus genome for vaccine development suggested that the virus was allegedly created by humans.
As noted by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), whose scientists were involved in these developments, the patents concerned antigens of the Seoul and Hantaan species of hantavirus. By the way, a publicly available and government-approved vaccine against hantavirus has yet to be developed.
Hantavirus was first identified in 1976 in South Korea in a field mouse and was named after the Hantan River (Hantangang) in that country. The discovery was made in the context of searching for the causes of hemorrhagic fever among thousands of UN soldiers, primarily Americans, during the Korean War.
The current outbreak, centered on the MV Hondius cruise ship, is linked to the Andes variant (Andes species), which was first discovered in 1995 in a deceased man in Argentina. The cruise where the outbreak began in 2026 started from this country.
A person becomes infected with hantavirus primarily from sick rodents through aerosols and dust from their urine and feces. Cases of virus transmission between humans have been recorded, but they usually do not occur on a mass scale.
Horse Dewormer — a panacea?
In the context of the alleged connection between hantavirus and COVID-19, the same treatment recommendations for the disease that circulated during the pandemic have also begun to spread online. American doctor Mary Tally Bowden has once again proposed treating the infection with ivermectin, gathering 4 million views on X (formerly Twitter).
Ivermectin is widely used in veterinary medicine, for example, to treat ascariasis in horses or to combat other parasites in pets; however, its effectiveness as an antiviral drug has not been proven in human trials.
Bowden received immediate support from the well-known former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known for her scientifically questionable statements and represents the Republican Party.
"I was just writing to her to find out how to treat hantavirus <…> Ivermectin, as well as vitamin D and zinc. Those of us who refused self-isolation, masks, and vaccines simply used good old horse paste and developed natural immunity," Greene wrote, gathering over 3 million views.
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