Right-wing influencers and commentators are pushing bizarre conspiracies about the rodent-borne illness that has killed three luxury cruise ship passengers.
These figures claim the hantavirus outbreak, which the World Health Organization has confirmed is being transmitted human-to-human on the MV Hondius, will bring about a manufactured global lockdown.
“HOLY SH*T. Twenty-three hantavirus cruise passengers returned home to ‘all corners’ of the World even America with one person already sick, per NYP,” the MAGAVoice account posted to its 1.3 million followers early Thursday morning. “THEY ARE GOING TO TRY AND DO IT AGAIN. BUCKLE UP…”
The account, receiving more than 10,000 likes between its virus posts, followed up: “Strange how viruses only occur when President Trump is in office and during Elections…”
MV Hondius, the vessel at the center of the outbreak, was stranded off Cape Verde most of the week but is now sailing north to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands on Monday.
No healthy passengers have exited the ship since hantavirus was confirmed to be spreading human-to-human, but a passenger revealed Wednesday that 23 passengers disembarked and returned home—including some to Georgia, California, and Arizona—when the ship was docked on St. Helena island in the southern Atlantic Ocean on April 21.
Despite this, some MAGA accounts are spreading a rumor that all passengers who wish to have already been permitted to leave the vessel.
“If an outbreak happens on a ship, leave it on the ship,” posted the right-wing influencer 0Hour1. “Bring the doctors on the ship with equipment and make it a floating ICU. Did they learn nothing?”
DC Draino, a MAGA influencer with 2.3 million followers on X, reshared the post and wrote, “People on X giving better pandemic advice than everyone at WHO combined.”
There are eight confirmed cases of the virus that stem from the cruise. Medical evacuations have taken place to South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
A scientist from the WHO has outright said the virus is “not the next COVID.” Still, there are figures on the right who are suspicious that the outbreak is somehow part of a sinister, years-long ploy.
Much attention has been paid to an X account named “Soothsayer” that posted in 2022, “2023: Corona ended... 2026: Hantavirus.”
Among those intrigued by the post is Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik and former MAGA darling Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“They manipulate the virus (bioweapon), make the vaccine (poison), and then make the profits because they own the vast majority of your elected leaders,” Greene wrote, resharing a post that said hantavirus is a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines. “They call this science. I’ll go ahead and say it, f--- all the way off.”
Those on the right are not just freaking out that hantavirus will be the next COVID-19, but are also offering similar solutions to combat it. The anti-vaxxer Dr. Mary Talley Bowden says those infected with the hantavirus can treat it with ivermectin.
“Hantavirus is a RNA virus, and ivermectin should work against it,” Bowden said. “Ivermectin blocks RNA viruses from entering the nucleus, inhibits viral replication, disrupts integrity of the viral membrane and can prevent viral replication.”
Greene said she was grateful for Bowden’s advice.
In another post, the former Georgia lawmaker suggested that a hantavirus outbreak may have been manufactured to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. However, it appears only Bowden is pushing medication sales over the outbreak so far.
“I’ll be selling ivermectin for Texans only, no prescription needed,” she wrote on X, adding that the “made in the USA” drug would cost as much as $110 from her.
