COVID is shaping Americans' reaction to Ebola and hantavirus

Health COVID is shaping Americans' reaction to Ebola and hantavirus May 21, 20265:00 AM ET By  Ava Berger A medical professional from Children's National Hospital works at a coronavirus drive-through testing site on April 2, 2020, in Washington, D.C. The COVID-19 pandemic is shaping how many Americans are reacting to Ebola and hantavirus. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Global health emergencies are back in the headlines, with recent outbreaks of hantavirus on a cruise ship and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The internet has responded accordingly, with the situation evoking painful reminders of COVID-19 for many people. Questions filled with fear have surfaced on Reddit, comedic videos are all over TikTok and Instagram, and search terms involving the word "pandemic" have increased on Google Trends in recent weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced people across the U.S. to a global health emergency that they may have never imagined. That experience is coloring how some people are thinking about Ebola and hantavirus, public health and infectious disease experts say. Fear around exotic-sounding diseases has always existed, but now people know how a pandemic can change their life. Sponsor Message As Chandra Harvey, a content creator on Instagram whose joking video about another possible pandemic received over 100,000 views, told NPR: "We're all dealing with PTSD from COVID." For Harvey, COVID-19 "heavily impacted" her family, with a few relatives hospitalized. "COVID scarred all of us," she said. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, "you were worried about your friends and neighbors and loved ones dying from COVID," said Dr. Ali S. Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. More than 1 million Americans died of COVID-19. Despite Ebola currently spreading in parts of eastern Africa, infectious disease experts told NPR that the average American should not be concerned...