The Virus, the Fear, and the Freedom Beyond Both
Student – Hi Lama la, many people coped well with the covid lockdowns — some of my friends even welcomed the quiet and the shift to working from home. I was not among them. I felt depressed throughout, and dreaded checking the news for fear of another positive case at home and the closures that would follow. The recent hantavirus reports have revived those anxieties. I am not sure I could endure another series of lockdowns. What does Lama know about hantavirus, and how likely is it to develop into another global pandemic? How can I toughen up?
Master – Hantavirus is not a single virus but a family of rodent-borne viruses that occasionally spill over into humans, sometimes causing severe illness and death.
The type of illness depends on the strain and region, and in severe cases it can progress rapidly, moving from mild flu-like symptoms to life-threatening respiratory or organ failure within days.
The virus first came to prominence during the Korean War in the early 1950s, when thousands of soldiers fell ill with what was then called Korean haemorrhagic fever. In 1978, it was identified near the Hantan River in South Korea, from which it takes its name. The wider family was formally classified in 1987.
Since then, related strains have been discovered worldwide, each associated with a particular rodent species and geographic region, suggesting the virus has circulated in animal populations far longer than previously understood.
Humans usually catch hantavirus by inhaling particles from rodent urine, droppings, or saliva, especially in enclosed spaces such as barns, sheds, or attics. Only certain rodent species carry it, and they remain healthy themselves — silent hosts rather than visibly sick animals.
Because infection can occur without direct contact with a rodent, wearing a secure respirator mask — an N95 or equivalent — is recommended when cleaning places where rodents may have nested. It is also advisable to wet down surfaces with disinfectant before sweeping to avoid stirring contaminated particles into the air.
Person-to-person spread remains rare, except for the Andes strain in South America, which has shown limited transmission, and then only among people in very close contact.
Recent concern centres on the cruise ship MV Hondius, where a small number of passengers were infected with the Andes strain and three died. The first case was likely contracted in Argentina before boarding, after which limited transmission occurred among passengers living in close proximity. The WHO assesses the risk to the general public as very low.
Regrettably, viral outbreaks and disasters in Western or high-income countries often dominate global media coverage, while similar events elsewhere receive far less attention. This imbalance can distort perceptions of global risk. In reality, hantavirus is estimated to cause approximately 60,000–100,000 infections worldwide each year, yet few — if any — receive the level of attention generated by the comparatively small number of cases reported on the cruise ship.
In truth, deaths number in the thousands annually — serious, but far below tuberculosis, which is estimated to have claimed 1.23 million lives in 2024, making it the world’s leading infectious killer even though it is largely treatable and curable. Yet when a case of TB is detected, nobody locks down. We don’t panic.
Could hantavirus spark a pandemic on the scale of covid? In theory, yes — viruses mutate — but under current conditions it remains extremely unlikely. Unlike influenza or covid-19, hantavirus does not spread easily between people. The Andes strain, the one exception with evidence of human-to-human transmission, has circulated for decades without triggering a global outbreak.
While a rise in hantavirus cases in Argentina has been noted in recent years, this likely reflects a combination of climate shifts, land-use change, and deeper human encroachment into rodent habitats rather than any increase in person-to-person transmission. For now, important biological barriers continue to limit that risk. However, habitat destruction and a warming climate are not receding.
In truth, these pressures are inseparable from the engine of modern capitalism: its relentless drive for profit fuels deforestation, resource extraction, and agricultural expansion at the expense of fragile ecosystems.
In Argentina and beyond, this dynamic pushes human settlements deeper into wildlife habitats, forcing encounters between species that would otherwise remain apart — encounters that heighten the risk of zoonotic spillover, as seen with Ebola, Covid 19, and now hantavirus.
None of this will change overnight. And fear, unlike policy, does not wait.
Rather than dreading the next viral outbreak headline, it may be wiser to prepare mentally. Buddhism reminds us that everything arises through causes and conditions, and when those conditions shift, change inevitably follows. A rainbow vanishes when moisture fades; a virus mutates and illness worsens; a change in feeling brings a relationship to an end.
Contemplating this prepares the mind not only for pandemics, but for illness, death, and life’s wider uncertainties.
Change, however, is not always negative. Illnesses fade, difficulties pass, broken relationships heal; pandemics and lockdowns end. To see this clearly is to loosen the grip of fear. A mind that understands the inevitability of change is less easily destabilised by the unexpected.
In this respect, Buddhism teaches us to see uncertainty not as an enemy, but as a teacher. When we stop expecting life to be constant, predictable, and free from difficulty or illness, something within us begins to open up. We strive to preserve our relationships and maintain our health, yet despite our efforts, we recognize that everything eventually falls apart — if not sooner, then certainly when we grow old and die.
True resilience, then, does not arise from ‘toughening up’, for endurance has its limits. Rather, it comes from understanding and accepting reality as it is. Through this realization, we come to see that joy and sorrow are inseparable, just as health and illness are intertwined. While life’s difficulties cannot be avoided, we can learn to meet them with wisdom.
