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Issued on: 11/05/2026 - 21:48
As the world saw with COVID-19, the only thing that spreads faster than a virus is misinformation, and Hantavirus is no exception. Despite only a few confirmed cases, conspiracy theories have swirled on social media falsely claiming Hantavirus is a planned pandemic, or a ploy to disrupt the US midterm elections. Others alleged it's a "bioweapon" created by big pharma to “poison” people or even that it's a side effect of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Many COVID-era conspiracy theories have been revived since the outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship, likely amplified due to the anti-vaxx movement and fears about a new global pandemic.
As with the coronavirus, theorists alleged hantavirus is a planned pandemic - or "plandemic" - created by Big Pharma and vaccine manufacturers, a "biological weapon" created in a laboratory to push vaccines onto the masses.
Known conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene (who was notorious for sharing false narratives during the Covid-19 pandemic) amplified these claims on their platforms, with Greene also sharing fake news that anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin could be used to cure hantavirus as it "blocks RNA viruses from entering the nucleus, preventing replication."
In reality, there's no research that Ivermectin could be used as a treatment, and hantavirus replicates in the cytoplasm, not the nucleus, rendering Ivermectin useless against its replication.
Global public health guidance also does not predict that a pandemic due to the hantavirus is likely. As Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management at the World Health Organisation recently said at a briefing: "This is not COVID, this is not the start of a COVID pandemic. This is not the same situation we were in 6 years ago. It doesn't spread the same way."
Internet users also falsely claimed hantavirus is a "planned side effect" of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, sharing a Pfizer document that references "hantavirus pulmonary infection" as part of a list of adverse events of special interest. This document in fact lists health conditions that scientists monitor during vaccine trials, not side effects.
Vedika Bahl fact-checks the viral conspiracy theories in Truth or Fake.
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