Hantavirus: How Scary Is It??

A weird virus has popped up on a cruise ship, and it’s making a bunch of us nervous. It’s a type of hantavirus called Andes virus, and scientists think that it’s infected almost a dozen people so far — three of them have died. And now people are getting off the boat, some of them going into government quarantine, but some of them traveling home. And people are like, wait … this all sounds VERY familiar … from the early days of Covid. So — how scary is this? Could this hantavirus be the next pandemic?? We talk to Prof. Michelle Harkins, Prof. Ann Sheehy and Dr. Neil Vora to find out.

Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsHantavirus

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Hantavirus shows up on a cruise ship

(03:11) What happens if you get sick with hantavirus?

(09:32) How does hantavirus spread? 

(14:05) How good is this hantavirus at spreading?

(26:08) Is this hantavirus going to cause the next pandemic?

This episode was produced by Michelle Dang, with help from Blythe Terrell, Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler, Ekedi Fausther-Keeys and Wendy Zukerman. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the executive producer. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bobby Lord, Bumi Hidaka, So Wylie, Emma Munger and Peter Leonard. Special thanks to the other researchers we spoke to about this, including Prof. Glenn Marsh. 

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