A terrifyingly accurate prediction about a hantavirus pandemic in 2026 from four years ago on social media has sparked conspiracy theories online about the rat-borne virus.
X user @iamsoothsayer wrote in 2022, “2023: Corona ended. 2026: Hantavirus.” The social media platform subsequently exploded, expressing their astonishment at the prediction amid current world events.
The tweet, which garnered hundreds of thousands of likes after it was rediscovered this week, was posted back in June 2022. User @iamsoothsayer claims to be able to “read the future” in their bio.
“This cannot be real,” one user quote retweeted the post. “Does that s*** say 2022?” another quote retweeted. Yet another commented, “Oh jeeze.. it’s 2026 now .. and there’s just been a Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship already killing 3…..”
The third individual was referring to the recent outbreak of hantavirus on the luxury MV Hondius cruise ship, which led to the death of three individuals, with several more falling ill.
There are currently over 100 people stranded on a cruise ship that reported hantavirus cases (Image: Getty)
Spanish authorities said on Friday that they were preparing to receive over 140 passengers and crew members who were on board the ship, which is now headed for the Canary Islands, where health officials have said they’ll perform careful evacuations.
The vessel is expected to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, by early Saturday.
“They will arrive at a completely isolated, cordoned-off area,” said Virginia Barcones, Spain’s head of emergency services, on Thursday.
The MV Hondius is a Dutch-flagged vessel. Dutch officials said on Friday that they were in close contact with the ship’s owner and the authorities of countries whose citizens are on board.
The U.S. agreed to send a plan to the Canary Islands to repatriate its 17 citizens from the cruise ship. The British government said it would charter a plane to evacuate its nearly two dozen citizens aboard.
WHO emphasizes that hantavirus will NOT be a new pandemic
The World Health Organization considers the risk to the wider public from the outbreak as low, and confirmed Friday that a flight attendant on a plane briefly boarded by an infected cruise passenger had tested negative.
Her possible infection had raised concerns about the virus’s potential transmissibility. Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesman, said Friday her negative result should alleviate panic.
“The risk remains absolutely low,” he said of the virus outbreak. “This is not a new COVID.”
Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people, but the Andes virus implicated in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said Thursday there were no people with symptoms of a possible infection on board the ship.