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A few Spanish passengers aboard the MV Hondius said the anxiety they have felt since the ship’s hantavirus outbreak has been less about catching the illness than about how they will be treated when they return to Spain. In conversations by phone with The Associated Press, two passengers said they have watched as sensational news coverage and social-media jokes have translated into fear and ostracism aimed at people from the vessel.
One Spanish man, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he feared being viewed as a “viral vector” people would try to avoid. “You go onto social media — they want to dynamite the boat. They want to sink the boat,” he said. Another Spanish woman, also speaking anonymously, described how online reactions have made it feel as if they were being pushed into a danger zone on arrival. “You see what’s out there and you realize you’re heading into the eye of a hurricane,” she said, adding that the public’s focus can drown out the fact that the ship carries real people rather than a generalized threat.
Both passengers said they have also felt the pressure of earlier coronavirus-era stigma, with comparisons that, they said, have resurfaced even as health authorities have urged caution against treating hantavirus like COVID-19. The World Health Organization has sought to dispel that kind of equivalence, warning that the two conditions should not be conflated for risk purposes. In remarks made Thursday, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s head of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, said: “This is very different virus. I want to be unequivocal here,” and added, “This is not the start of a COVID pandemic.”
WHO officials have described hantavirus as usually spread through inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and as “isn’t easily transmitted between people.” However, the outbreak connected to the cruise ship involved the Andes virus, which WHO officials said may be able to spread between people in rare cases. The passengers’ concerns about stigma have unfolded in parallel with those health messages, including efforts to counter coronavirus flashbacks.
Some Spanish groups and politicians have taken defensive or exclusionary positions, according to the Associated Press reporting. Iustitia Europa, an anti-establishment Spanish group that rose to prominence by challenging COVID-era restrictions, called for the MV Hondius to be barred from reaching Spanish shores. On X, it posted: “The Canary Islands cannot become Europe’s health laboratory … We demand transparency, responsibility, and protection for Spaniards to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.”
At the regional level, there has also been disagreement over what happens next. Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands regional government, told Spain’s El País on Friday he would not be at ease until the ship leaves Spain and all passengers are headed to their respective quarantine destinations. Madrid’s regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso said on Thursday she disagreed with transferring the ship’s 14 Spanish passengers to a military hospital in Madrid, where authorities have said they will have to quarantine.
Port workers in Tenerife protested on Thursday, citing a lack of information provided about safety measures to be implemented. The passengers said the uncertainty and public anger have also shaped daily expectations for when they will be allowed to get off the ship. The reporting said the more than 140 passengers and crew could begin disembarking as early as Sunday.
While the ship has remained under outbreak procedures, one passenger described a day-to-day routine that he said has felt relatively calm. He said specialists boarded while the vessel was still off the coast of Cape Verde and explained that human-to-human transmission is rare, which he said helped ease concerns. He added that passengers who ventured out into common areas were seen reading or attending talks while wearing masks and observing social distancing, and that some joined a 7:30 a.m. exercise group on an upper deck.
Other passengers tried to keep their attention on travel and wildlife, he said, even as the outbreak turned the vessel into the subject of global scrutiny. Both passengers said they expected to cruise again in the future. “For me, personally, traveling is a means to … live out what I’m passionate about — which is observing nature and documenting nature,” the woman said. “Of course I would go on a cruise again.”
Biller reported from Rome. AP photographer Emilio Morenatti contributed from Barcelona.