Amid global concern over the Hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius, old posts on social media platforms claiming to have predicted a “2026 hantavirus pandemic” have resurfaced, fuelling conspiracy theories and fear.
The growing international attention comes amid the death of three persons aboard the luxury Dutch cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, including a woman with a confirmed case of Hantavirus.
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On Thursday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that overall, five of eight suspected cases of hantavirus had been confirmed. The agency, however, clarified the situation was not comparable to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Health officials are currently scrambling to trace passengers who deboarded the ship in late April to prevent further infections. The luxury cruise, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its voyage in Argentina on April 1. Around 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially on board before several disembarked at Saint Helena on April 24.
Old X Posts Go Viral
An X post by an account called @iamsoothsayer is going viral. In the 2022 post, the user appears to have predicted the end of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2023 and the Hantavirus outbreak in 2026. The cryptic post only reads: “2023: Corona ended 2026: Hantavirus."
The tweet has gone viral and triggered widespread speculation and conspiracy theories. However, it is also believed that the posts origin from spam accounts, which operate by posting multiple predictions privately and then deleting the failed ones if one of the posts comes true.
A similar post from 2012 is also going viral, in which a user named Jason claims he overheard during an H5N1 workshop that if someone wanted to really make a pandemic, they should work on making hantavirus transmissible between humans.
The UN agency has said the hantavirus outbreak aboard MV Hondius is not the beginning of a pandemic. WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove stated the virus typically spreads from rodents, with transmission between people documented for the first time in the latest outbreak.
Old clips of US science fiction thriller franchise ‘X Files' are also going viral on social media. In the viral scenes, characters discuss biological warfare and describe hantavirus as a “silent weapon of quiet war.” The clips have intensified online conspiracy theories.
WHO Says Public Health Risk Low
At a news briefing on Thursday, Kerkhove said the hantavirus outbreak is “not Covid” and spreads very differently from influenza or coronavirus. According to the WHO, the passengers aboard MV Hondius have already been asked to wear masks. WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency considers the public health risk from this virus to be low.
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However, officials also warned that more cases could appear as the disease typically has a six-week incubation period.
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