Experts say the CDC is missing in action as the hantavirus outbreak unfolds, warning that the United States is not prepared.

(SeaPRwire) –   There has been no rapid deployment of disease investigators. No public news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a rare hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship involving Americans and making global headlines, the U.S. government’s top public health agency—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—has reportedly been missing in action, according to several experts.

“We seem to have things under very good control,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday evening.

However, experts note that the situation has not escalated because, unlike COVID-19, measles, or influenza, hantavirus does not spread easily among people. Instead, it is experts from other countries—not U.S. officials—who have been primarily managing the outbreak over the past week.

“The CDC isn’t even involved,” said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

The diminished role of the CDC in this outbreak reflects, some experts argue, that the agency is no longer the dominant force in global health or the primary protector of domestic health as it once was.

This hantavirus outbreak serves as a “sentinel event” revealing how well prepared the nation is for a disease threat, said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared.”

How the outbreak unfolded

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness while aboard a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and certain islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. Additional cases emerged, including his wife and a German woman, both of whom also passed away.

Hantavirus was confirmed as the cause of one of these deaths on May 2. The World Health Organization (WHO) responded swiftly, and by Monday had officially declared it an outbreak. Approximately two dozen Americans were on board, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on the vessel.

It’s WHO taking center stage

For decades, the CDC collaborated closely with the WHO during such emergencies. Typically, the CDC led international investigations by providing personnel, scientific expertise, and helping clarify outbreak mysteries, develop containment strategies, and communicate clear guidance to the public.

These efforts helped establish the CDC’s reputation as the world’s leading public health agency.

This time, however, the WHO has taken the lead. It conducted the risk assessment determining that the outbreak did not constitute a pandemic threat.

“I don’t believe this poses a major danger to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. Still, she added, “the way this has played out simply shows how hollow and ineffective the CDC currently is.”

Tumult until Trump

The current circumstances follow 16 turbulent months under the Trump administration, which withdrew from the WHO, restricted CDC scientists from communicating with international counterparts at times, and initiated a strategy to build its own global health network through bilateral agreements with individual nations.

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

Meanwhile, amid these changes, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious diseases, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

Waiting to hear from the CDC

The CDC has not remained entirely silent regarding the hantavirus outbreak.

The agency issued a brief statement on Wednesday asserting that the risk to the American public remains “extremely low” and describing the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

“Not only was that message unhelpful, it actually caused harm,” said Nuzzo. “A core principle of public health communication is humility.”

CDC Acting Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya posted on social media that the agency was offering its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials confirmed this week that they received information from the CDC indicating one asymptomatic American who left the ship—deemed non-contagious—had already returned to the state. WHO officials noted that the CDC has shared technical data.

Bhattacharya also stated that the CDC is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all American passengers on the cruise.”

Nevertheless, most federal health officials have avoided speaking publicly, declining interview requests. Key details have surfaced not through official statements but via anonymous disclosures, including news on Friday that the CDC planned to send a team to Spain’s Canary Islands to meet the Americans still onboard.

On Friday evening, health officials released an updated statement confirming the dispatch of a team to the Canary Islands. They also announced a second team would travel to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers to a designated quarantine facility.

COVID-19 comparison

During interviews this week, several experts drew comparisons to a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship anchored in Japan that became one of the first major COVID-19 outbreaks outside mainland China.

At that time, the CDC deployed personnel to the port, assisted with evacuating U.S. citizens, implemented quarantines, shared viral genetic sequences, coordinated with the WHO and Japanese authorities, held daily public briefings, and rapidly published research that soon became the global reference for understanding how the virus spreads on cruise ships, said former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.

While aspects of the response to the Diamond Princess were criticized and failed to stop the pandemic globally, some experts emphasized that the failure was not due to the CDC’s lack of effort.

“The CDC was fully engaged, highly visible, and deeply involved in trying to manage and contain the outbreak,” Gostin said. By contrast, the current response appears delayed and subdued.

Instead of maintaining broad cooperation with nearly every country through the WHO, the Trump administration pursued bilateral health agreements with select nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it calls “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” About 30 such agreements are now active.

That approach is insufficient, Gostin argued. “You cannot possibly respond to a global health crisis using one-on-one deals with scattered countries.”