Below are extracts from a New York Times article, with thanks to Global Health Now. Plus a comment from me.
Full text: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/well/hantavirus-covid-misinformation....
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The Hantavirus Outbreak Is Resurrecting Covid-Era Misinformation Tactics
Experts say A.I. tools have made it even easier for influencers and others to spread false messages online.
Influencers and others on social media have seized on the hantavirus outbreak to revive disinformation that sowed distrust during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some users on X have called the outbreak, which began on a Dutch cruise ship and was first reported to the World Health Organization earlier this month, a hoax designed to influence a new round of elections in the United States, or have falsely claimed that hantavirus is a side effect of the Covid vaccine. Others have warned about the possibility of lockdowns and vaccines, despite the fact that there has been no discussion of such measures and there’s no widely available shot on the market. The claims have been viewed millions of times on X, TikTok and other platforms, according to researchers who track content online...
Public health experts say the outbreak of hantavirus, which spreads rarely from person to person, poses far less of a threat than Covid, which killed more than 7 million people worldwide after it emerged in China in late 2019. But the rush to embrace a new round of conspiracy theories has them concerned.
Even if the hantavirus outbreak is quickly brought under control, they fear this is a warning sign that officials will face significant pushback should they need the nation’s cooperation in controlling the next major health threat.
“The next time when we need to face a big challenge as a society, we’re just not in a good place to cope with it,” Dr. Ophir said.
Part of the problem, he said, is that much of the misinformation and distrust generated during the Covid pandemic was never meaningfully addressed.
One 2024 survey found more than a quarter of respondents still mistakenly believed Covid vaccines caused thousands of deaths, years after Americans first started getting the shots. Another 2023 survey found that more than a third of Americans believed the virus responsible for Covid was released on purpose, a theory unsupported by any credible evidence.
Some of the people responsible for spreading Covid misinformation and sowing distrust in the nation’s public health institutions now lead them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously faced backlash for suggesting that the coronavirus targeted and spared certain ethnic groups, for example...
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COMMENT (NPW): AI may indeed make it easier for influencers and others to spread false messages. But, importantly, I believe AI can serve as a powerful antidote to false information. For example, if I type into ChatGPT 'is the hantavirus outbreak a hoax designed to influence a new round of elections in the United States?' it will give me a clear unequivocal answer: 'There is no credible evidence that the hantavirus outbreak is a hoax or a coordinated political operation tied to U.S. elections'. I believe that people will increasingly use AI intelligently, not so much to spread false claims, but to question what they hear.
What do you think?
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org