Experts wonder ‘Where is the CDC?’ as a hantavirus outbreak unfolds on a cruise ship

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a strange outbreak of that involves Americans and , the U.S. government’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been , according to a number of experts.

鈥淲e seem to have things under very good control,” President Donald Trump told reporters Friday evening.

But experts say has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

鈥淭he CDC is not even a player,” said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. 鈥淚’ve never seen that before.鈥�

The CDC’s diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is 鈥渁 sentinel event鈥� that speaks to 鈥渉ow well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I鈥檓 very sorry to say that we are not prepared,鈥� said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

How the outbreak unfolded

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man’s wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

It’s WHO taking center stage

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world’s premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think this is a giant threat to the United States,鈥� said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University鈥檚 Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out 鈥渏ust shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,鈥� she said.

Tumult until Trump

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency’s ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to 鈥渞estore the CDC鈥檚 focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.鈥�

Waiting to hear from the CDC

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is 鈥渆xtremely low,鈥� and described the U.S. government as 鈥渢he world鈥檚 leader in global health security.鈥�

Said Nuzzo: 鈥淣ot only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.鈥�

The CDC’s acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship 鈥� a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious 鈥� had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is 鈥渕onitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,鈥� Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests. Some details emerged not through public statements but through disclosures from anonymous sources, including news Friday that the CDC was sending a team to Spain’s Canary Islands to meet the Americans onboard.

On Friday evening, health officials issued an updated statement, confirming the deployment of a team to the Canary Islands. They also said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center.

COVID-19 comparison

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, , shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports 鈥渢hat became the world鈥檚 reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,鈥� said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19鈥檚 spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC’s lack of trying.

鈥淭he CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,鈥� Gostin said, while the agency’s work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world’s nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as 鈥渢he introduction of innovative American technologies.鈥� Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That’s not sufficient, Gostin said. 鈥淵ou can’t possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,鈥� he said.

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Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute鈥檚 Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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