The EU's public health response to disease outbreaks is examined, with a recent hantavirus scare on a cruise ship triggering the civil protection mechanism, despite experts noting its low infectivity compared to COVID-19.

In this episode we explore how the EU deals with outbreaks of disease. The latest scare for Europeans has been the hantavirus, detected on cruise ship the MV Hondius, which subsequently docked in Spain. Experts have stressed that this virus is not like Covid-19 and is much less infectious. Nevertheless, the EU's civil protection mechanism was triggered, and several member states took part in evacuation flights from Tenerife in the Canary Islands.