World5 min(s) read
Published 14:36 08 May 2026 GMT
A four-year-old tweet is going viral due to how chillingly accurate it has been about the hantavirus outbreak.
Almost everything is etched into history in the age of social media, and while old tweets have gotten numerous celebrities in trouble in the past, it is also interesting to look back at what people thought in years prior.
You may be digging through the archives to see how wrong people were about world events, but there is the rare occasion where someone, somehow, got it all completely right.
And this is what happened with this 2023 tweet, where a user seemed to predict that we would be experiencing this current hantavirus outbreak, which originated on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
So far, at least seven confirmed cases have been linked to the ship, including three deaths, one critically ill patient, and several others with milder symptoms.
Social media users couldn't quite believe the accuracy of the post, which was made at the tail-end of the COVID pandemic.
User @iamasoothsayer took to X, then Twitter, on June 11, 2022, writing: "2023: Corona ended.
"2026: Hantavirus."
It was the account's third post, having been created that same month, and it proved to be its penultimate post, too.
Eerily, the bio on the account claimed that the person behind it "reads the future," which many may have brushed off, until today.
There was no suggestion or hint of a hantavirus outbreak, with health experts still confused over how the first case of this latest outbreak was contracted.
One shocked user joked: "No other explanation other than the CIA predating world events with tweets," with another adding: "This has to be a simulation."
Numerous users even asked the account holder to predict the next day's lottery numbers, in a playful take on the post.
Many others think that the person may have clairvoyant powers, as a user penned: "Who are you and where are you?"
Some screenshotted the account's bio and posted shocked reaction memes along with it, because in fairness to the account holder, they did get this one right.
According to Mayo Clinic, the illness produces particular symptom patterns which can trigger hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) or Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).
Both can be fatal if left untreated, with the virus primarily being transmitted via contact with rodents, when humans are exposed to their urine, feces, or saliva.
HPS is most commonly spread by rat and mouse feces, which can come into contact with humans when clearing out rat-infested rooms or spaces.
Those who end up contracting the virus will usually start experiencing symptoms within one to eight weeks.
Some of the symptoms of the virus include:
The MV Hondius, was carrying around 150 passengers when the first hantavirus case was reported.
At the time of departure on April 1, local health authorities confirmed that no passengers were showing symptoms of hantavirus.
Somewhere along the journey, passengers began reporting illness, according to the Guardian.
What initially seemed like routine flu-like symptoms quickly escalated into something far more serious.
Cases began to build up, and the severity of symptoms, particularly respiratory complications, raised alarm bells.
Health officials later confirmed multiple cases of hantavirus, a rare but potentially deadly disease that primarily affects the lungs.
Among the victims were a Dutch couple whose story has become one of the most widely reported human tragedies linked to the outbreak.
A 70-year-old Dutch man was declared dead on arrival in Saint Helena, while the ship was making a stopover, as his 69-year-old wife collapsed at Johannesburg's international airport in South Africa as she attempted to fly back home to the Netherlands.
Hantavirus was also confirmed in a 69-year-old Brit, who was evacuated to a hospital in South Africa for intensive care.
The first case of hantavirus discovered in someone who was not on the current sailing of the MV Hondius cruise ship has also been reported, and a man is in hospital.
The patient, who had sailed on the ship in April, is currently in a medical facility in Switzerland.
In a press conference this week, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove explained: "This is not the next Covid but it is a serious infectious disease. If people get infected, and infections are uncommon, they can die.
"People on the ship who are hearing this are very scared, rightly so. The general public might be scared as well.
"Accurate information is critical. Knowing what your actual exposure might be - most people will never be exposed to this."
The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) said on X that they were closely monitoring American passengers aboard the MV Hondius but highlighted that the hantavirus outbreak posed a "very low" risk to the wider public.
