The hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship has set off global alarm, with Spain particularly on high alert after the vessel docked at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife. On Tuesday, the 14 Spanish passengers who were on board arrived at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid and were transferred to Gómez Ulla Hospital, where they remain in quarantine. The outbreak has already claimed three lives, and authorities are working to keep the situation under control to prevent further escalation, mindful of the lessons from the coronavirus pandemic.
Economist Gonzalo Bernardos shared his view on the crisis via his personal account on X, formerly Twitter. The University of Barcelona professor began by noting that “a substantial part of the population is panicked that hantavirus will become a second coronavirus.” He attributed this fear first to “the devastating impact of COVID-19,” recalling that many experts initially predicted the virus would be mild and cause very few cases in Spain—a forecast that proved tragically wrong, with an estimated 80,000 deaths on the Iberian Peninsula in 2020.
Bernardos also pointed to growing mistrust: “Some specialists said person-to-person transmission of hantavirus was very difficult, and now there are doubts about that difficulty.” He added that Spanish society “does not believe politicians are telling them the truth” and that “on social media, more and more people struggle to differentiate between hoaxes and facts.”
As a remedy, Bernardos proposed: “Provide ample information
