What's next for Americans from ship hit by hantavirus?

0:00 Let's bring in CBS News medical correspondent Dr.

0:02 Celine Gounder.

0:03 She's also editor at large of public health

0:05 at KFF News and an expert on infectious diseases.

0:09 Good morning, Celine.

0:10 So, we just heard the NIH say there is nothing to worry about,

0:13 but after the experience that many Americans had during COVID,

0:17 there is suspicion of public health proclaiming

0:20 that everything is going to be okay.

0:22 And maybe this isn't COVID 2.0, but it could be something else that is scary.

0:26 So, allay our fears.

0:30 [laughter] So, first of all, hantavirus is not going

0:31 to be COVID for a whole host of reasons.

0:34 So, yes, it is more deadly if you get it,

0:37 but the the keyword there is if you get it.

0:40 It is less infectious.

0:42 COVID was airborne.

0:44 Most of the transmissions with hantavirus are direct intimate contact.

0:48 Rarely, you have maybe a little bit further spread, what we call droplet spread.

0:54 So, those big juicy droplets when you sneeze or cough,

0:57 but it's that still doesn't travel that far.

0:59 So, we're we're talking about limited The incubation period here is long,

1:04 which actually works in our favor because

1:06 that gave us time to contain the situation.

1:09 This is also a virus that infects deep in the lungs,

1:12 not up in the upper respiratory tract.

1:15 So, it's much harder to spread a lot

1:17 of virus when you breathe out or when you cough.

1:19 So, for a whole host of reasons, this is a very different virus.

1:23 So, we've got 16 Americans that are at this facility in Nebraska.

1:27 They're quarantining.

1:28 What does that look like?

1:29 What are the conditions?

1:30 What are the steps that they need to hit before they're released?

1:33 I mean, they're not just running out into the wild again, right?

1:35 So, there are different words here that get

1:37 thrown around that I think people sometimes confuse.

1:39 It happened during COVID.

1:40 So, you have quarantine, you have isolation, you have biocontainment.

1:43 So, quarantine means you've had exposure, but you don't have symptoms,

1:48 you're not testing positive, you don't have hantavirus, at least not yet.

1:52 And so, those people are in what looks more like a dorm or a hospital room.

1:56 It's really just having you be under observation.

2:00 Uh when we talk about isolation or biocontainment,

2:04 the people who are going there are people who have symptoms,

2:07 who have tested positive, who perhaps actually do have hantavirus.

2:11 And those are very different situations.

2:13 In the latter, you want to actually have medical care

2:16 available to them because when people get sick with hantavirus,

2:19 they get sick very quickly.

2:21 incubation of this virus is 8 weeks inside the body.

2:24 So, is there risk when they do get home that it's still there?

2:27 No, once you've cleared it, you've cleared it.

2:29 So, you know, what and once you're out of that incubation period,

2:32 nothing to worry about it.

2:34 Okay.

2:34 All right.

2:34 Well, that's reassuring.

2:35 Definitely reassuring.

2:36 Dr.

2:36 Gounder, thank you so much.