JONATHAN M. METSCH, Dr.P.H. – Hacking Emerging Public Health Challenges – May 19, 2026 – Ebola & Hantavirus
“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News on Monday that his agency is working to address the recent hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, marking the first time he’s commented publicly on the Ebola outbreak since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed than an American had been infected with the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“Yeah, we’re working on it,” Kennedy told ABC News when asked if he was worried about the outbreaks. The secretary’s comments come after the CDC said a “small number of Americans” are directly affected by the current Ebola outbreak in the DRC.
Kennedy did not respond when asked what his message might be to Americans who are concerned about the diseases potentially spreading in America. He told reporters in the Oval Office last week that the U.S. had the hantavirus outbreak “under control.”
“We have this under control and we’re not worried about it,” he said at the White House’s maternal healthcare event on May 11th. Kennedy also noted that the CDC has been working on the outbreak since day one.” (1)
“While the Ebola outbreak is alarming, health experts emphasize that it’s unlikely to trigger a pandemic. “The risk to the general population in the U.S. is extremely low, and we don’t have any cases here right now,” says Guest.”
““It’s at the WHO’s highest level (of alarm) without being a pandemic. The PHEIC is their way of saying it’s likely not going to stay inside the DRC and Uganda,” Guest explains.
Countries that share a land border with DRC are considered “high risk” for the spread of Ebola, the WHO said. These include South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi, among others.
However, the likelihood of Ebola spreading widely in nations outside of sub-Saharan Africa, including the U.S., is very low, experts say.
“The Ebola virus is not airborne, so we are not looking at something like COVID-19 or even flu where it quickly spreads worldwide,” says Kavanagh.
That said, the current situation is still serious.
The CDC has issued a health alert for clinicians in the U.S. with recommendations for Ebola testing and safety precautions.
“Anytime we have an outbreak of this magnitude of a virus that is this fatal, everyone should be concerned because we are a global world and we’re all connected,” says Guest.”
“Compared to the Andes hantavirus, which has spread to 10 people so far, Ebola is far more contagious and dangerous, the experts emphasize.
“It’s ironic in the worst way that, while global attention has been focused on a cruise ship facing a virus that spreads slowly and can be controlled, there’s a massive outbreak of a much deadlier, more easily spread virus going on in Africa unnoticed,” says Kavanagh. (2)
“”The most important message around this particular hantavirus outbreak is what it represents,” says Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine.
The recent hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks were both born from pathogens spread from animals to humans, notes Hotez. Hantavirus typically spreads to humans via the droppings and saliva of rodents, while Ebola tends to get transmitted from animals like fruit bats and porcupines.
“This is our new normal,” Hotez says of zoonotic spillover events. “Every year, every other year, every three years, we should expect to see a major zoonotic spillover event, and a serious epidemic.”
Why is that? Well, Hotez says, health professionals can’t say for sure. But one possibility could be climate change, which has led to more interactions between humans and wildlife.
“Climate change has an important role,” Hotez says. “With the rising temperatures, altered climate patterns, altered weather patterns, altered rainfall patterns, what’s happening is animal hosts are migrating to seek new habitats to improve access to their food or their shelter.”
“It’s not just the bats and rats coming closer to the people; it’s the people coming closer to the bats and rats,” Hotez says. “We are now starting to see the formation of these ginormous megacities of 10, 15, 20 million people or more, especially in low and middle income countries, and, with that, deforestation. So, it’s people coming closer towards animal habitat.””
“We need to get ready. Now that zoonotic spillover epidemics are going to be the new normal, this is a time to be reinforcing our infrastructure,” he says. “We need to be gearing up our ability to develop new countermeasures for these illnesses, improve our ability to make better diagnostics, better antiviral drugs. And, of course, having vaccines available for all of these, as well as therapies using monoclonal antibodies.”” (3)
1.’We’re working on it’: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Ebola, hantavirus response, By Arthur Jones II, https://abcnews.com/Health/working-rfk-jr-comments-us-response-health-outbreaks/story?id=133088460
2.Why the Ebola Outbreak Is More Concerning to Health Experts Than Hantavirus, by Caroline Kee, https://www.today.com/health/news/ebola-outbreak-2026-symptoms-spread-bundibugyo-strain-hantavirus-rcna345662
3.Ebola, hantavirus and what these frightening outbreaks really mean, by Charles Trepany, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/05/19/ebola-hantavirus-outbreaks-epidemics/90150145007/
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai