Trump Responds to Question About Virus Outbreak: ‘We Should Be Fine’

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had been briefed on the recent outbreak of hantavirus and believed that Americans “should be fine.”

Trump spoke to press while visiting the Lincoln Memorial to inspect his renovation of the Reflecting Pool. A reporter asked the president if he had received briefings on the virus making headlines for killing at least three people on board a cruise ship currently anchored near the Canary Islands.

The president confirmed that he had received briefings on the outbreak, telling press that his administration had “great people” studying the virus and that more details would follow.

“Well, I think you’re going to be told everything, and you already have,” he said. “It’s very much, we hope, under control. It was the ship, and I think we’re going to make a full report about it tomorrow. We have a lot of people, a lot of great people studying it.”

Trump added that the situation “should be fine, we hope.”

When asked whether Americans should be concerned about a spread of the illness, the president continued to speak in vague terms, claiming his administration would try its best.

“I hope not. I mean, I hope not,” he said. “We’ll do the best we can.”

A World Health Organization official said on Thursday that the recent outbreak would not become another global pandemic.

“This is not coronavirus. This is a very different virus. We know this virus. Hantaviruses have been around for quite a while. There’s a lot of detail that we know,” she said. “This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a Covid pandemic.”

A passenger aboard the cruise ship experiencing the outbreak claimed that passengers were “not well-informed” about the virus, sharing a video he filmed of the boat’s captain announcing the death of a guest.

In the video, the captain said: “This is my sad duty to inform you that one of our passengers suddenly passed away last night. Tragic as it is, it was due to natural causes, we believe. And also whatever health issues he was struggling with, I’m told by the doctor, were not infectious, so the ship is safe when it comes to that. The ship is safe. This gentleman, unfortunately, succumbed to natural causes. And like I say, we do what we can in order to continue in a safe and dignified way.”

“It turns out we were not well-informed,” the passenger told NBC News. “It’s very scary because it was nothing that we were ready for.”

Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions told the outlet that the cause of death was unknown at the time of the captain’s announcement, claiming that the “proper procedure was followed” on board.

Watch above via C-SPAN 2.

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