Fernando Simón downplays hantavirus threat: "A priori, no risk without new cases"

Bicho or business? The economic clues behind Simón's statement

With a mortality rate of 40% and an incubation period of up to six weeks, the bicho has all the ingredients for a new health crisis. Yet Fernando Simón, director of the Centro de Coordinación de Alertas y Emergencias Sanitarias (Spain's health emergency coordination centre), has declared that "a priori, without new cases there is no risk". The reaction was swift: scepticism, irony and a current of opinion that sees this episode as a new pharmaceutical business and the prelude to another lockdown.

The lethality of the bicho and its potential economic impact
The data used by the scientific community indicate that the bicho has a fatality rate far higher than SARS-CoV-2. However, it does not appear to spread easily between humans, which reduces the risk of a pandemic. Even so, the memory of the ELbichito-19 response, with mass lockdowns and the rollout of experimental vaccines, has triggered a social alarm that goes beyond health. The possibility of a new lockdown has direct economic implications: a halt to activity, a drop in consumption and new debt issuance.

The ghost of lockdown and the markets' reaction
In financial circles, any threat of restrictions sends investors flocking to safe-haven assets. Simón's statement, far from reassuring, has fuelled antiestéticars. The debate includes mentions of "money printing" and the possibility of fines of up to 60,000 euros for refusing vaccination. These figures, though hypothetical, reflect the distrust that the authorities will repeat the same pattern as in 2020.

Pharmaceutical business: the real driver of the alarm?
The sceptical community points out that the pharmaceutical industry made record profits from ELbichito-19 vaccines. The emergence of a new bicho, with high mortality and mutation potential, could be a new business opportunity. Simón remaining in his post, more than six years after the start of the pandemic, is seen as a sign that the system has not changed and that a new script is being prepared.

The question that remains is whether we are facing a real threat or another twist of the antiestéticar industry. Meanwhile, the data on the bicho are clear, but the official narrative and public reactions are trinc divergent paths.

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