{"id":2853,"date":"2026-05-25T12:39:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/05\/25\/ebola-and-hantavirus-outbreaks-prompt-raft-of-conspiracy-theories-in-divided-us\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:39:46","slug":"ebola-and-hantavirus-outbreaks-prompt-raft-of-conspiracy-theories-in-divided-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=2853","title":{"rendered":"Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks prompt raft of conspiracy theories in divided US"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border-color:var(--article-border);background-color:var(--article-inner-background)\" class=\"dcr-wqti5a\">\n<div class=\"dcr-2zxs1v\">\n<div style=\"--grid-area:media\" data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tr9ye5\">\n<figure id=\"63976e17-1027-49e7-a495-2c606a5b326f\" class=\"dcr-142siv7\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t8m8f2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A healthcare worker in a blue gown and mask draws blood from a patient's arm in a clinical setting\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/7f161277f2e0e97fe0cc0380d63097332f67c0d5\/0_0_8093_5398\/master\/8093.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"310.1532188310886\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><span class=\"dcr-v822l1\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-gup2gr\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fntg6k\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-1xgwz8b\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1os51wo\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">A patient prepares to have blood drawn for a test at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu in eastern DRC this week.<\/span> Photograph: Michel Lunanga\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-13fd1ms\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"63976e17-1027-49e7-a495-2c606a5b326f\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-n4pnam\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1hdkqum\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">A patient prepares to have blood drawn for a test at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu in eastern DRC this week.<\/span> Photograph: Michel Lunanga\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:border\" data-gu-name=\"border\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:headline\" data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1aqe7zu\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-1k1a1x\">Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks prompt raft of conspiracy theories in divided US<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:standfirst\" data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-b3fmmo\">\n<p>Ever-growing influence of social media and AI means such ideas spreading at faster rates than before, experts say<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:body\" data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-kn9unn\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1a4fred\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-ydnaza\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1c9t5u6\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><span style=\"color:var(--drop-cap);font-weight:500\" class=\"dcr-15rw6c2\">H<\/span>antavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or \u201cplandemic\u201d, designed to upend midterms elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"4ce80706-67f1-4219-9201-1d0424e6d843\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\">\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-1 | 1\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-name=\"placeholder\" class=\"dcr-1kyw41h\">\n<div data-format-theme=\"5\" data-format-design=\"0\" data-format-display=\"0\" class=\"dcr-1ljij2n\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/21\/us-travel-restriction-ebola-hantavirus-impacts\" class=\"dcr-1m887w9\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-ut4tvs\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1h5b6rb\">\n<div class=\"dcr-169d7yv\">US curbs on travelers exposed to deadly viruses may infringe rights and deter volunteers<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-eurq8n\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fkf7vq\">Read more<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and poses a \u201cvery high\u201d risk at the national level. In the upside-down world of conspiracy theories it could be a bioweapon, a financial plot, or a scheme to extract national resources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Hantavirus outbreak, which began on a cruise ship in the South Atlantic, killing three passengers and causing at least 11 to test positive, carries its own set of baggage: passengers were crisis actors, or it was caused by Covid vaccines and Bill Gates, or perhaps it was an Israeli false flag operation and can be cured by the antiviral horse de-wormer ivermectin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This is not new, though undoubtedly the ever-growing influence of social media and now AI slop, means that such ideas spread further and faster than ever before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis is very normal, and we should not be shocked that people are conspiracy theorizing,\u201d said Dr Joseph Uscinski, an associate professor of political science at the University of Miami and author of a new book on the consequences of the Black Death that killed more than one third of Europeans in the 14th century.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIf people are paying attention to something, so are people who are conspiracy-minded, and they are going to interpret disease through that lens,\u201d he adds. \u201cOf course, there is going to be a conspiracy behind it and they\u2019re going to blame people they already dislike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Uscinski points out that theories around hantavirus and Ebola are not much different than during Covid, Aids, or other virus outbreaks. During the previous Ebola outbreak in 2014, online posts \u2013 some picked up by Infowars\u2019 Alex Jones \u2013 held that Ebola victims were returning as zombies. But that was during the fourth season of The Walking Dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhatever the disease, people are going to say there\u2019s a conspiracy behind it, or that it\u2019s not real and the vaccine is scam. It\u2019s the same stuff done over and over,\u201d Uscinski adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Currently such theories are especially strong on the right in the US.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">On Jones\u2019s network, one host, Harrison Smith, proposed: \u201cIf I was the bad guy, you know what I would do? I\u2019d really release the hantavirus. I would really have an actually super deadly virus spreading from person to person, and then I would release a real vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">WHO\u2019s chief scientist, Sylvie Briand, said on Friday that obeldesivir, an experimental Covid antiviral treatment developed by Gilead, could be used among Ebola contacts to prevent them \u2060from \u200bdeveloping the disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The rightwing site Gateway Pundit, which included a \u201cContagion Emergency Kit\u201d, <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260508184350\/https:\/\/www.thegatewaypundit.com\/2026\/05\/hantavirus-are-we-verge-another-plandemic\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">suggested<\/a> that hantavirus was \u201canother plandemic\u201d and a \u201ctransparent effort to terrorize Americans and swing the midterms against President Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Mikki Willis, who made the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/coronavirus-covid-19\/coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-film-attacking-vaccines-has-racked-millions\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">film Plandemic<\/a>, about the conspiracy theory that the Covid pandemic was planned, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/media\/4040453\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">said<\/a> that \u201cthey are \u2026 gonna try this again\u201d with hantavirus. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/coronavirus-covid-19\/right-wing-figures-are-spreading-plandemic-conspiracy-theories-about\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">website Media Matters<\/a>, which monitors the right wing in the US, numerous podcasters and social media figures have linked the twin viral outbreaks as a way of potentially disrupting the coming US midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But claims that conspiracy theories are always rightwing are not entirely accurate. \u201cWhen people conspiracy theorize they are almost always accusing a center of power, whether that\u2019s pharmaceutical companies or the government,\u201d Uscinski says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Anti-fluoridation, a movement that opposes the addition of fluoride to public water supplies, exists in Portland, Oregon, and it does in Florida, but for different reasons: one group mainly thinks it\u2019s a capitalist corporate plot; the other is anti-communist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Same with vapor-trail conspiracies that started during the anti-Vietnam war protests. The Make America Healthy Again movement has also blended its political coloring from left and right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThey can be political but not necessarily partisan \u2013 but they are always held by people who don\u2019t trust the establishment,\u201d Uscinski says. \u201cWherever you find conspiracy-minded people you\u2019ll find conspiracies. The defining characteristic is not if they\u2019re left or right, but that they\u2019re raging conspiracy theorists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But, ironically for anti-government conspiracists, it is attacks on state power that are actually harming the response to the viruses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">US engagement in curbing the current Ebola outbreak is hampered by massive cuts to global public health efforts, including the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and research cuts at US health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Last week, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus clashed on US international engagement after Rubio said the agency was a \u201clittle late\u201d in identifying the Ebola outbreak in DRC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Middle Ages historian Thomas Asbridge, author of The Black Death, argues that the response to hantavirus, Ebola, Covid and the 14th century plague share common characteristics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Asbridge points out the Black Death came during financial and climate crises \u2013 the collapse of the Florentine gold-backed economy and the onset of the Little Ice Age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThat is a quite similar context to what we have been experiencing in the early part of the 21st century,\u201d he says, pointing to the economic financial crisis of 2008 and human contact with animals carrying zoonotic pathogens that jump across species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">So too does confusion over precisely how to respond \u2013 something not helped by hostility to government or confusion over officials sometimes mixed messaging. In response to identification of the Andes strain of hantavirus onboard MV Hondius, officials initially offered contradictory information about whether it was spread by rodent dropping or could by close human-to-human contact. During Covid, people were first advised to wash food, and there were questions over whether it was airborne and the distance it could travel, and how long you could be in a space with someone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">And amid the natural confusion of dealing with a virus, conspiracy theorists only add to the problem \u2013 which remains a very real one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe might be much slower to accept and respond appropriately to what\u2019s required,\u201d Asbridge says. \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely right to be alarmed and cautious about Ebola and hantavirus. Hopefully we will be lucky this century.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-qxqnsy\"><span class=\"dcr-1rq3vad\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1dzx48f\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-1rrvs2w\">\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-news\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">US news<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/world\/ebola\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Ebola<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/world\/hantavirus\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Hantavirus<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-nu129i\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Ebola%20and%20hantavirus%20outbreaks%20prompt%20raft%20of%20conspiracy%20theories%20in%20divided%20US&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/25\/ebola-hantavirus-conspiracy-theories?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-125qj9d\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-zhx6xs\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fmay%2F25%2Febola-hantavirus-conspiracy-theories&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/may\/25\/ebola-hantavirus-conspiracy-theories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-14rjinq\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:right-column\" data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1h2hraq\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tn16h9\">\n<section class=\"dcr-1hko8ef\"><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A patient prepares to have blood drawn for a test at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu in eastern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}