U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as it undergoes renovations, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
President Donald Trump downplayed the risks of the hantavirus outbreak when asked about it by reporters.
Hantavirus is a virulent, slow-incubating infection spread by rodents; an estimated 38 percent of infected people who develop respiratory symptoms die, and up to 15 percent who develop hemorrhagic fever symptoms. The disease has flared up on a luxury cruise ship off the coast of Africa, leaving three people dead.
"We should be fine," said Trump, when asked about the potential risk.
After a reporter followed up with whether Americans should worry that the outbreak will spread, Trump replied, "I hope not."
All of this comes after the Trump administration cut research funding to study hantaviruses, Scientific American reported.
"In 2025 the Trump administration eliminated funding for a group that had been running a pilot project aimed at studying the type of hantavirus that has been confirmed to be behind an ongoing outbreak on a cruise ship," said the report. "The pilot project was designed to better understand how hantavirus passes from rodents to humans and was being conducted through the West African Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (WAC-EID), one of 10 centers that comprised the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) network."
Ultimately, said the report, "All 10 centers were shuttered last year after the National Institutes of Health decided the research was 'unsafe.'"
All of this comes after Trump famously proclaimed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that the virus would swiftly drop to "zero" cases, shortly before it swept over the country, killing over a million people and disrupting public life for years.