By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
WASHINGTON D.C. – As Washington deals with Iran, an alien reveal, high gas prices, and the list goes on, a new controversy has been added, the Hantavirus.
One person said to me earlier this week it seems like a marketing roll out the way these issues become the “fear of the week.”
Indeed, taking a step back I must agree.
I am not saying sickness and death are not important, but from a social media perspective the way the fear of this virus got whipped up last week it was like a calculated marketing scheme.
There was one mention when a man on the MV Hondius operated by Oceanwide Expeditions showed up on social media stating “they (passengers on the boat) we’re people too.”
It looked like he was reading a script and later it was discovered he has ties with Oceanwide Expeditions as either an owner or a PR person.
Many people were asking where the other passengers were and why has no one posted anything about the trip. A trip, I can 100% verify has a travel writer, which includes a remarkable itinerary. The fact not one of the 170 passengers onboard has posted any photos or comments is strange indeed.
People were saying the cruise is high dollar and rich people do not post as much on social media.
Please, that stupid comment almost made me spit my drink out at dinner.
Prices start on this cruise line at around $2,800 and go north to about $16,000 depending on the destination.
As the days progressed after the first Hantavirus reveal, more information from random people posting on social media went from one or two posts to 100 to 200 posts – the key to a great marketing rollout.
Let me be clear, I am not confirming or denying what this one is all about, but it is giving me a spine tingling reminder of the COVID rollout.
For this one, Hantavirus has gone viral even faster and every armchair doctor, traveler and social media influencer has jumped on the Hantavirus headline to attempt to go viral, get a big payout and maybe use it as their means to become ‘‘social media” famous.
Naysayers are being slammed. Those reminding people to remember COVID and that pandemic are being cursed, threatened and I made just one post on TikTok and my account is under threat of deletion by the great TIKTOK powers that be.
So much for free speech in America.
I also looked at Google and found more information beyond what I ever wanted to know about hantavirus and the outbreak.
Lots of comments and then the blame game began with Scientific American reporting “Trump administration cut funding to study hantavirus, the virus behind the deadly cruise ship outbreak” a headline also for clicks and views on the internet.
I also found that Moderna mysteriously has already been doing Hantavirus research and a report “Moderna speeds up research to develop Hantavirus vaccine: When could it be ready?”
So here we go with another vaccine.
And this is not a stock market tip, but “The U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna announced Friday, May 8, that it will accelerate research to develop an effective vaccine against the Hantavirus. As a result, its shares rose 14% at the start of the weekend, according to Google Finance.”
According to the World Health Organization three people from the ship have died from the virus.
The MV Hondius voyage began April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina.
Pres. Donald Trump’s comment to The Hill on Hantavirus “We have a lot of people, a lot of great people, studying it. It should be fine, we hope.”
My final comment: when anything happens stop and consider the CIA built-in strategy regarding clandestine operations, counterintelligence, and psychological deception.
Think about each situation and ask yourself could this be happening in this situation.
Disinformation or deception comes in “half-truths” or selective sharing of information to build credibility “in order for a to lie work, the deception must be wrapped in credible, verifiable facts.”
Rita Cook is a world traveler and writer/editor who specializes in writing on travel, auto, crime and politics. A correspondent for Texas Metro News, she has published 11 books and has also produced low-budget films.
