CDC's acting director says hantavirus is not "a five-alarm fire bell"

Washington — Jay Bhattacharya, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, defended the federal government's response to the deadly hantavirus outbreak, saying it doesn't make sense to sound "a five-alarm fire bell" because the risk to the public is "much, much lower" than what we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"It's very different than COVID, and we should treat it differently than COVID," Bhattacharya told "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil on Monday when asked about the lack of daily briefings on the outbreak. 

Bhattacharya, who also leads the National Institutes of Health, said hantavirus "is a more deadly disease if you get it," but added that the "epidemiological risk is very, very different" than COVID. 

"Unlike COVID, the way that people get it from person to person is much, much more difficult for that to happen," he said of the way the virus spreads. 

There have been at least three deaths and 10 confirmed or suspected cases of the rare, rodent-borne illness linked to the outbreak on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which had been sailing the Atlantic Ocean. 

Eighteen American passengers who were aboard the ship returned to the U.S. on Monday and are being monitored at medical facilities in Nebraska and Georgia. 

According to health officials, the hantavirus outbreak identified on the cruise ship is the Andes strain of the virus, which can spread between people but requires prolonged close contact with someone who is ill. 

Bhattacharya said the U.S. has been tracking the outbreak for several weeks and is collaborating with state and local health departments, as well as the World Health Organization and foreign governments, on the response. 

On communicating the potential danger to the public, Bhattacharya said the CDC does not want to cause unnecessary panic. 

"The key thing is that we should be keeping the public aware of when there's actually threats to them, not causing the public to panic, not speculating about things that haven't happened, or potentially could in some universe happen," he said. "And being very, very clear about what we know and don't know, and also by responding appropriately when there is a risk, just as we've done." 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Trump administration this week over last year's cuts to the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program, which investigates outbreaks and conducts health inspections on cruise ships. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called the decision "incompetence." 

"The very CDC inspectors and port health workers we need to track this virus, the people whose entire job is to keep deadly diseases off cruise ships and out of our country, Donald Trump fired them. This White House will tell you the risk to Americans is low. How do they know? They have made it impossible to find out," Schumer said in a statement Sunday. 

Bhattacharya told CBS News that in his two and half months in the role leading the CDC, he has seen "no gap at all in the group that manages outbreaks." Bhattacharya said the inspection team has done an "incredible job." 

Bhattacharya also said the U.S. is prepared for any potential disease outbreaks during the upcoming World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada in June and July. 

"Of course, any time so many people are traveling, there's always the possibility of various outbreaks or whatnot to happen," he said. "But the risk is not any different than it is in other World Cups that we've managed properly. And the United States has systems in place to make sure that if something happens that we respond appropriately."