"We do not need to be afraid of the virus, since 'hanta' in Hebrew means nonsense," says Dharma Pongrekun, a former candidate for governor of Indonesia's capital Jakarta, in an interview posted on YouTube on May 15, 2026.
The video, which has racked up more than 200,000 views, also shows Dharma describing hantavirus as "a global agenda" to sell vaccines -- echoing language he used in an earlier political event where he falsely suggested Covid-19 was a made-up pandemic.
Covid-era conspiracies resurged on social media following the global scare sparked by a hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship from Argentina to Cape Verde (archived here and here).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 13 cases, including three deaths, have been reported as of May 27 (archived link).
Eight infections were confirmed for Andes virus -- the only strain transmitted between humans through close and prolonged contact, and which is predominantly found in parts of South America (archived link).
All known cases in the outbreak were people on board the Dutch-flagged vessel, with the WHO saying the risk to the general population is "absolutely low" (archived here and here).
Similar claims that the supposed Hebrew origin of the name of the virus is evidence that the disease is fraudulent have spread in Australia, the Philippines and the United States, and in posts written in English, Japanese and Spanish.
In Indonesia, the claims made by former politician Dharma were...
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