As People Worry About the Hantavirus, Some Recall This Scary Story Out of Australia

An outbreak of the hantavirus on a cruise ship has many worried we're about to experience COVID 2.0. The WHO said the other day that this is different, and that the hantavirus — a rat-borne illness — is better known than SARS-CoV-2 was. But with reports that almost two dozen of the cruise ship passengers have returned home, many are worried there's another pandemic on the horizon.

This writer's older sons, who were 13 and ten during COVID, both expressed such concerns.

We'll see what happens, but someone raised a very interesting connection. Two years ago, more than 300 vials containing deadly viruses went missing from an Australian lab.

BREAKING: Of the 323 vials containing deadly viruses that went missing from a lab in Australia in 2024, two reportedly contained hantavirus, per ABC News.
— Patrick Webb (@Patrickwebb) May 8, 2026

Here was some reporting at the time.

‼️ 323 vials containing deadly viruses go missing from a lab in Australia — ABC News

Among them, nearly 100 vials contained the Hendra virus (transmitted from horses to humans, with a 57% fatality rate). Two vials contained the hantavirus (spread by rodents, with a 38% fatality… pic.twitter.com/ymwq8TWHEX
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 11, 2024

"The most likely cause of the 'disappearance' is thought to be the loss of containers during transfer to a new freezer. The Ministry of Health is conducting an investigation," the post notes.

According to the WHO, there were anywhere between 10,000 to 100,000 hantavirus infections globally each year, concentrated mostly in Asia and Europe. From 1993 to 2023, there have been fewer than 900 laboratory-confirmed cases in the U.S. One of the most notable ones was Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman. She died of the virus at their New Mexico home in March of last year.