By Kate Perez and Allison Kiehl Chicago Tribune (TNS)
May 21, 2026
A passenger of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is pictured while leaving by military bus after disembarking in the port of Granadilla de Abona on the island of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 11. Adverse weather conditions forced the cruise ship MV Hondius hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and anchored off Spain’s Canary Islands to dock before evacuations can be completed, the health ministry said.Jorge Guerrero / AFP
CHICAGO — Brooke Loughman knows that when she opens a social media app, she’ll be flooded with posts, whether she wants to see them or not. Lately, the first-year DePaul University student has found herself scrolling quickly through her feed, trying to avoid information about hantavirus and the wave of anxiety she experiences thinking about the possibility of another pandemic like COVID-19.
“If it is going to be a really big deal, I would rather not prematurely freak out, because if it is going to be like a COVID-19 scale thing again, I’d rather have some sense of normalcy for as long as I can,” said Loughman, who is 19.
Loughman’s thoughts are echoed by students scarred by living through the coronavirus pandemic.
The fresh mix of news and misinformation about hantavirus on social media is stirring up negative emotions for some young people, carried over from living on lockdown. COVID-era anxiety can linger and resurface, even more than half a decade after the pandemic, mental health experts say. The unknowns of a new virus outbreak, coupled with an influx of sometimes unreliable information, can generate fear, dread and anxiety.
In other words, the aftereffects of COVID-19 are still present, according to Tara Leytham Powell, an associate professor of social work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “All the impacts of that, the loss of income, the social isolation, the fear of the illness, all those things still exist in people’s minds,” Powell, who is currently researching COVID’s lasting impacts on mental health.
