NPR⁠84%

Hantavirus: the risks, the science and what you need to know ⁠77%

By Berly McCoy⁠0% Emily Kwong⁠0% Rebecca Ramirez⁠0%

5/8/2026, 7:00:00 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 12 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Appeal to Authority, and Biased Writer Voice, with Attempt to Sell a Product or Service as the most egregious example at 31.1% saturation with 59 hits. Analysis detected 347 faulty-reasoning hits from 190 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 68.4% and a BS Rank of ⁠77% (5,138 of 21,886 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 76.50% of the article peer group.

On May 2, the World Health Organization got an alarming report: People aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean were falling ill. 
The culprit is now confirmed as hantavirus, a pathogen that some rodents carry that can infect humans in rare, but often deadly, instances. 
Multiple passengers have died, and more people are showing symptoms. 
So, we're talking to Emily Abdoler, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Michigan, about the news – how common is hantavirus in humans, what are the consequences of getting it, and how can at-risk people protect themselves from it? 
If you found this episode interesting, listen to our episode on Rocky Mountain spotted fever. 
Interested in more science in the news? 
Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. 
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. 
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 
This episode was produced by Berly McCoy. 
It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. 
Tyler Jones checked the facts. 
The audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.4%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.6%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 12.1%Berly McCoy: 7.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.8%Availability Heuristic12.1%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.8%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.4%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 27.4%Berly McCoy: 13.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 11.1%Framing Effect27.4%This article: 11.6%Berly McCoy: 1.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Loss Aversion11.6%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.1%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.4%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.3%Pessimism Bias0.0%This article: 16.8%Berly McCoy: 16.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 11.3%Negativity Bias16.8%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.3%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.1%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 4.1%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.3%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 2.6%Berly McCoy: 5.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.8%Halo Effect2.6%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 16.8%Berly McCoy: 1.7%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.7%Recency Bias16.8%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.5%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.2%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 21.6%Berly McCoy: 7.6%Goats and Soda (NPR): 6.1%Appeal to Authority21.6%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.5%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.3%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 5.3%Berly McCoy: 4.3%Goats and Soda (NPR): 4.4%Hasty Generalization5.3%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 7.9%Berly McCoy: 0.8%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.7%Bandwagon7.9%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 6.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 6.6%Appeal to Emotion0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.2%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.9%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 1.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.8%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.4%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 1.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 2.8%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 12.1%Berly McCoy: 2.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.5%Ambiguity (Equivocation)12.1%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.5%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 3.9%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.3%Unattributed Quote0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.5%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.9%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 17.4%Berly McCoy: 10.7%Goats and Soda (NPR): 3.1%Biased Writer Voice17.4%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 2.8%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.0%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 1.1%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Berly McCoy: 0.0%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 31.1%Berly McCoy: 22.7%Goats and Soda (NPR): 0.3%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…31.1%

190 words analyzed.

Speakers

No attributed speakers were identified in this analysis.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.