The potential of a bigger hantavirus outbreak is apparently starting to drive people mad.
Case in point ... an Arkansas man allegedly threatened to shoot up a Walmart if the hantavirus forces the United States to shut down.
According to cops, Aaron Keith Bynum was arrested Friday by Marion County Sheriff deputies and charged with making terroristic threats -- a felony -- and harassing communications, a misdemeanor.
RFK Jr. had a visitor Thursday at his office -- a famous cousin who was bearing what we're guessing are some unwanted gifts.
Jack Schlossberg, President John F. Kennedy's grandson, showed up at the Department of Health and Human Services with a bottle of Tylenol in one hand and a subpoena in the other.
We can explain.
Jack told Charliethe Tylenol is purely anticipatory ... anticipating the moment when Schlossberg -- a New York candidate for Congress -- takes the oath of office, because that's gonna give RFK Jr. a major headache.
A passenger has died after jumping overboard from a Carnival cruise ship near the Bahamas ... TMZ has learned.
Sources on board the cruise tell TMZ ... the man went into the water from the Carnival Liberty as it traveled just outside Nassau Tuesday. We're from someone on board that a life ring was thrown to the passenger, but he was soon out of sight, prompting an immediate search and rescue effort.
A Carnival spokesperson tells TMZ ... the guest climbed over his stateroom balcony and went overboard while the ship was sailing from Celebration Key to Nassau. Crew members immediately launched a search and were able to recover him from the water, but he did not survive.
Hantavirus is not the end of the world ... and people should keep booking their cruises as normal ... according to cruise influencers Rich and Jasmine Ramnarine.
TMZ spoke to the content creators behind A Rich and Jazzy Life ... who go on about 11 cruises every year with their 2 young daughters, Reign and Royce, as well as their Melanin at Sea community. They tell us they aren't losing sleep that hantavirus could affect their travels or the cruise industry as a whole ... and they even plan to voyage on their next aquatic adventure starting June 5.
Jazzy tells TMZ she feels saddened that hantavirus has caught cruising some bad flak ... 'cause no one is going on a trip with intentions of spreading sickness. But she doubles down that no one should treat this like the end of the world.
Jacobis soooo Gen Z -- complain complain complain, although this time he may have a point.
Our D.C. young'un ran into Rep. Seth Magazineron The Hill, and told the Congressman about how he and his friends suffered through COVID, and how he just couldn't handle another pandemic.
The Rep. from Rhode Island was sympathetic, and confessed our country is totally unprepared for another disease that shuts America down.
Jacob then went to his go-to -- THE FREAKOUT METER -- and asked the Congressman where we land.
Magaziner's answer focused on members of Congress ... and where he puts them on Jacob's meter is more than alarming.
The dreaded hantavirus has nearly claimed another life ... as a French woman is struggling, breathing through an artificial lung amid the MV Hondius cruise outbreak.
According to her doctor, the unidentified woman is currently in critical condition in a Paris hospital after contracting the disease aboard the cruise ship during a 34-day expedition through the Atlantic, with several stops along the way.
Authorities said three people have died, with eight other reported cases as a result of the outbreak on the ship, which launched April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina. So far, authorities have confirmed nine of the hantavirus cases.
President Donald Trumpsays the U.S. has the hantavirus situation under control ... but he admits there's only so much he can do as fears grow over the deadly cruise ship outbreak.
Trump addressed the increasing panic Monday from the Oval Office ... telling reporters, "I hope it's fine," while insisting the country is in "very good shape" -- despite the virus, which comes from contact with infected rodent waste, spreading aboard the stricken cruise ship MV Hondius.
POTUS added ... "All I can do is everything that a president can do, which is actually somewhat limited."
Seventeen American passengers from the cruise ship at the center of the deadly hantavirus outbreak are officially back in the U.S. ... and one of them has already tested positive, and another is showing symptoms.
Health officials say the passengers were pulled from the infected ship MV Hondius and flown to the U.S., where they're now being checked out in highly specialized quarantine units.
Two of the evacuees were transported in full-on biocontainment pods to stop any spread of the virus ... making this the moment the outbreak officially hit U.S. soil. The Department of Health & Human Services says one person tested positive but was showing no symptoms, while the other was experiencing mild symptoms. Further clinical assessment was ongoing, the department said.
A cruise ship tied to a deadly Hantavirus scare pulled into Tenerife on Sunday morning ... with shaken passengers hauling their belongings in plastic bags as they evacuated the vessel.
At the Granadilla Port in Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish health officials began screening travelers for symptoms before allowing anyone to leave the ship, according to Reuters.
Once cleared, passengers were ferried ashore in small groups and are expected to be taken to the island’s main airport for flights back to their home countries -- 17 Americans are reportedly onboard the ship.
If you attended a recent wedding with YouTuber Ruhi Çenet in Istanbul, then you may want to get checked for the deadly hantavirus before it's too late!
Here's the scoop ... Çenet was one of 147 passengers and staff aboard the doomed MV Hondius cruise, which is now being investigated for a suspected hantavirus outbreak by the World Health Organization. During the trip in April, three passengers died, possibly from hantavirus, which is an infectious disease typically spread through contact with rats and other rodents.
On May 3, Çenet attended the crowded wedding in Istanbul, Turkey — and he caught a lot of heat from people online after a photo surfaced on social media showing him at the event.
The hantavirus scare is giving some people COVID flashbacks ... but this virus apparently doesn't have the same bite.
Dr. Ashish Jha -- the former White House COVID response coordinator -- stopped by "TMZ Live" to tell everyone to exhale a little over the deadly outbreak aboard the MV Hondius ... because while he's worried about people exposed on that ship, he tells us this thing is NOT shaping up to be another COVID-style nightmare.
Check it out ... he assures us, "This is not gonna be a pandemic. That's not how this virus is going to behave."
A British ex-cop is speaking out after becoming the first identified passenger hauled off the hantavirus-riddled MV Hondius this week.
Martin Anstee was evacuated Wednesday -- and speaking from a hospital in Amsterdam, he said he's thankfully not feeling too bad right now ... though doctors are still running tests while he remains in isolation.
Martin told Sky News doctors should have a much clearer picture of his prognosis in the next few days -- so, for now, signs seem positive. Still, his wife Nicola admitted the whole ordeal onboard felt deeply traumatic.
The deadly hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius is causing serious panic worldwide ... and now video has emerged showing the ship captain announcing the first death onboard.
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Travel content creator Ruhi Çenet had been on the ship before debarking after the first death, on April 11 ... he later hopped on IG to share video of the captain addressing passengers in a communal area, revealing one guest had died the night before.
The captain also said the ship doctor believed the illness wasn’t infectious ... but just one day later, the dead passenger’s wife also died -- and Ruhi says things only got worse after he left, with the ship's only doctor fighting for his life. So far, there are three reported deaths.
A deadly virus outbreak aboard a cruise ship may have spread far beyond the vessel itself ... because nearly two dozen passengers reportedly wandered across the globe before health officials finally tracked them down.
According to reporting from Spanish newspaper El País, 23 passengers aboard the MV Hondius got off the ship during a stop on the remote Atlantic island of Saint Helena in April -- despite the fact people onboard had already gotten sick and at least one passenger had died.
A Spanish passenger still aboard the ship told the outlet the travelers had no clue they may have been exposed to hantavirus -- a potentially deadly disease with a mortality rate WHO reports could be as high as 40% -- when they disembarked and headed home.
Three patients have been evacuated from the cruise ship at the center of the deadly hantavirus outbreak, with 8 potential cases in total now being reported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO announced early Wednesday morning three suspected hantavirus case patients were evacuated from Oceanwide Expeditions' MV Hondius cruise ship to receive medical care in the Netherlands. This comes after a local leader opposed allowing the ship to dock in the Canary Islands, which is run by Spain.
Swiss authorities confirmed a case in one passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship after he responded to an email from the ship’s operator and went to a hospital in Zurich, where he began treatment, according to WHO.
Things are getting seriously grim at sea ... a luxury cruise has turned into a floating health hazard, with multiple deaths tied to a suspected hantavirus outbreak.
"Of the six affected individuals, three have died and one is currently in intensive care," the World Health Organization said ... and that's just the start of what's unfolding onboard.
The WHO says at least six people aboard a ship sailing the Atlantic off the coast of West Africa have been hit -- one case lab-confirmed, five more still under investigation -- with one passenger now fighting for their life in intensive care in South Africa.
