17 American passengers aboard hantavirus-hit cruise ship will quarantine in Nebraska

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

May 8, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT / Updated May 8, 2026, 6:55 PM EDT


Seventeen American passengers aboard the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak will quarantine at a Nebraska facility that specializes in handling patients with highly communicable diseases, health officials said. The m/v Hondius is expected to arrive in Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, on Sunday at which point disembarkation and isolation plans will be implemented.

A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet the American passengers there, an agency official confirmed to NBC News. And the State Department is arranging a flight back to the U.S. for them, a department spokesperson said Friday. The 17 passengers will be received at the National Quarantine Unit, a secured facility on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, said Dr. Michael Wadman, the unit’s medical director.

There, they will be assessed and any necessary quarantine measures will be determined, he said. They will also be monitored daily. All of the people being transported to Nebraska are in good health and are asymptomatic, but should anyone be diagnosed with the virus, they would would be moved to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, said Dr. Angela Hewlett, the medical director of that unit.

The Biocontainment Unit treats patients with hazardous communicable diseases in sterile environments that maximize safety and containment. It features an isolation unit, HEPA filtration system and specialized sterilization “autoclaves” with double doors to decontaminate waste and linens. Hewlett emphasized that the current outbreak is not at Covid levels.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flight-attendant-tests-negative-hantavirus-new-case-suspected-remote-i-rcna344191

[Norrrm]

1. Trump is actually taking care of this one, unlike COVID, which he ignored until it became a pandemic.

With Trump killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.

[RussBLib]

3. I wonder

1) I wonder what you mean by "taking care of this one" ?

and

2) could it be as simple as: hantavirus has a known history in this country and Korea, especially, and Trump might have heard of it, or his advisors told him this one was real, and deadly.

vs.

The Covid-19 virus seemed to come out of nowhere, or Wuhan, China, and Trump's suspicious nature assumed it was caused by people who do not like Trump, so he discounted the reality of the virus. He can't do that with the hantavirus.

But, oops, over a million Americans died from Covid. At least 7 million certifiable deaths worldwide.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

[Norrrm]

5. 1.... Treatment

[IronLionZion]

15. Over a million Americans

1/3 of total COVID deaths worldwide. Seems a bit disproportionate to our population.

[Ocelot II]

2. If you read something too fast it gets weird: I wondered how a ship could be quarantined in *Nebraska*

until I reread it the thread title.

[Lovie777]

4. The contacts alone will cause transmission..................

and only 17?

How many were on the ship including passengers and the staff?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I think there were 150 passengers

3 died and 5 were symptomatic and confirmed positive. They are struggling with the contact tracing because some had left the ship while the infection was active but before people died.

The ship was a Dutch one.

[dutch777]

6. Seems extreme for a virus that while transmissable human to human it is highly unlikely. Hope in all that movement...

...the non-patient folk all along the way are protected. I would consider a tent city with MASH hospital dock side and keep it simple given these passengers are asymptomatic.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I think WHO confirmed that this variant was person to person

but the transmission was not like COVID or other high-transmission viruses.

[blue-wave]

13. Yes, the strain that was on the ship is the

Andes virus strain. It is the only one known at this time which can be spread from human to human.

[AverageOldGuy]

8. As I recall . . .

. . . the COVID pandemic started with 12 sick passengers from a cruise ship in California and then-President Trump assured us it would end in 14 days.

By the time he left office in 2021, at least 450,000 were dead.

And now . . . 17 from a cruise ship . . . Trump is President . . . and Dr. Fauci is retired.

[the nelm]

11. And didn't he initially try to keep that ship from docking in a US port?

My mind is a bit fuzzy on the details.

[LisaL]

17. And RFKjr is in charge of our healthcare.

NT

[underpants]

10. I saw a report on MS NOW. The logistics of this are incredible.

Anchoring off shore. Zodiac boats and helicopters taking 150 people off board. I’m sure the staff will be hazmetted up. The helicopters? Are they going to carry them to shore via air lift?

[Aussie105]

12. While the world slept . . .

the known viruses and other deadly diseases were plotting a comeback.
They don't need sleep.

Oldies on a crowded cruise ship - the diseases go 'Yeah baby! Let me at them!'
The old adage applies - it is meant to be fun, it costs money, nothing will go wrong!

What next?
Replay of Mad Cow Disease, Bubonic plague, lethal flu varieties?

[Renew Deal]

14. I say we take off...

Just kidding

[IronLionZion]

16. I have plenty of masks left over from COVID, just in case

MAGA might want to spread it around for "herd immunity" since that worked out so well last time.

I'm sure we'll be in very good hands with RFK Jr.

[Prairie Gates]

18. Old enough to remember Trump and right wing media going bonkers about that Ebola nurse

being allowed to go back to Vermont or whatever.

[Blumancru]

19. What am I missing?

If they are on a ship, aren’t they already pretty well quarantined? Just drop them food for a week or two. If you absolutely have to bring them to the US, quarantine them at Mag a Lardass.
The MAGAts must be trying to kill off the excess population.