Hantavirus Survivor Tells Fox News People Shouldn’t ‘Be as Worried’ About Rat Virus ‘As They Would Have Been With Covid’

A survivor of hantavirus told Fox News on Monday that Americans should not be concerned about the recent outbreak of the “rat virus” turning into a situation similar to Covid-19.

Jennifer Benewiat, who survived an infection of the deadly hantavirus in 2010, told Fox & Friends she discovered she had been infected after suddenly becoming seriously ill.

“I was really exhausted and I was running a fever. I could tell I was real hot. I got in the house, and I just collapsed,” she said. “I had a lot of vomiting and nausea and muscle weakness and like cramping really bad.”

Benewiat added that what she didn’t know at the time was that her “lungs were filling with fluid.”

“What would you like people to know, Jennifer, that are watching?” asked Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt. “Because a lot of people are scared when they hear this, especially living through Covid.”

Benewiat replied, “I understand why they’re scared, completely, and I mean this virus is so rare that it doesn’t really spread the same way Covid did, so I don’t think that people really need to be as worried about it as they would have been with Covid.”

“It is severe. It is serious,” she continued. “But I just don’t think that it’s as concerning as Covid would have been.”

Asked how much she had recovered 16 years later, Benewiat said, “I do have some brain fog and I do have some muscle weakness and tingling in my extremities, but for the most part, I am OK. I relearned everything. My motor functions are all back, so I’m pretty much okay.”

Earhardt then asked Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, “Dr. Siegel, we shouldn’t worry, right?”

“We should not worry about this,” Siegel replied. “It has not changed. Mainly in rodents.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) made similar assurances last week after passengers on a hantavirus outbreak cruise ship returned home to several countries around the world, including the United States.

“This is not coronavirus. This is a very different virus. We know this virus,” said infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove during a WHO briefing on Thursday. “This is not the start of a Covid pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship. There’s a confined area. We have five confirmed cases so far.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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