Reed: Trump’s Poor Hantavirus Response Underscores Administration is Ill-Prepared for Public Health Emergency

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Jack Reed criticized the Trump Administration’s cuts to key federal public health programs, noting that a deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard an international cruise ship that infected Americans who are now repatriated highlights the risks of slashing funding for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), and eliminating federal inspectors and port health workers who should be on the frontlines of tracking this virus and keeping deadly diseases off cruise ships and out of the United States. “I don’t want people to be worried, but I do want the U.S. government to be better prepared and more proactive. This was a known pathogen, so the risk should be low. Still, it exposed the Trump Administration’s ill-preparedness. President Trump unwisely cut funds, staff, and resources to study, prevent, and monitor hantaviruses and other infectious diseases that can spread quickly and sicken or kill people. Defunding public health and critical research isn’t just short-sighted, it inflicts a form of willful blindness. American lives should not be put at risk because of the Trump Administration’s lack of coordination between government centers and agencies, and weakened surveillance systems,” said Senator Reed. Hantaviruses are a family of rare but potentially dangerous rodent-borne viruses that can cause flulike symptoms and severe lung or organ problems. Typically the virus is transmitted through contact with infected rodents or their excretions. The Andes strain of the virus is the only type of hantavirus that is known to spread person-to-person. This spread is usually limited to people who have close contact with the ill person. The illness, which has a 40 percent mortality rate, has left three ship passengers dead and at least another eight infected. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials, one American who was on the infected cruise ship has already tested positive for hantavirus while another is experiencing some symptoms of the virus. All of the American passengers are being monitored under medical watch. However, the virus has potentially already spread beyond the ship because there were passengers who disembarked during the voyage before the first suspected case came to light. Public health officials in Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia are actively monitoring individuals who may have come into contact with the virus. Last year, the Trump Administration fired all full-time employees working for the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), which helps the cruise industry prevent and control public health issues, including inspecting cruise ships and reporting violations, as well as providing information about outbreaks. Reed noted that while the risk to the general public at this time is low, the fact that President Trump’s CDC took a back seat to WHO officials during the outbreak is troubling, especially since the Trump Administration retreated from the global data sharing and coordination network and reduced the U.S. capacity to lead the international response to the hantavirus outbreak. “After needlessly severing the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization, the Trump Administration was completely missing-in-action during a major health incident that put American lives at risk. For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in similar situations and our experts were there to lead the response and investigations. But under the Trump Administration, while experts in other countries quickly responded, the U.S played a diminished role and the CDC was unacceptably slow to respond,” said Senator Reed. The Trump Administration has proposed eliminating $750 million in federal preparedness grants for state and local health departments, firing Epidemic Intelligence Service fellows who serve as America's frontline disease detectives, and gutting infectious disease research, vaccine platform research, and viral-threat surveillance programs across HHS and the CDC. According to the Associated Press : “I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said. Noting that ‘hope’ is not a strategy, Reed said he was not reassured by President Trump’s tepid remarks about hantavirus. Reed says the Trump Administrations needs to be more proactive, rehire laid off federal workers, and fully fund disease research and prevention initiatives.