HHS Secretary RFK Jr. visits Nebraska to praise hantavirus operation at UNMC

Pillen in turn praised Kennedy for his leadership and said he admired Kennedy’s fitness, challenging him to a push-up contest.

“We all agree our health is our wealth,” Pillen said.

For six weeks in May through June, 18 cruise ship passengers stayed at the Dr. Edwin G. & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center after they were exposed to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius. The building is home to a federally funded National Quarantine Unit, which Kennedy referred to as the “mecca for biocontainment.”

Before the cruise ship reached U.S. shores, Kennedy said, he was on the phone with Gold making arrangements for the passengers to stay in the unit. He said the standard incubation period for hantavirus is 42 days, and while he knew that length of time was difficult for those quarantining, he praised UNMC officials for making their stay as pleasant as possible, noting that some staff grilled Omaha Steaks outside to feed the residents.

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Kennedy said it was a bigger hardship for a majority of Americans to be locked in “house arrest” for at least a year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kennedy called COVID-19 a much less serious disease, as it has a lower fatality rate than hantavirus, which is typically between 20% and 40%. He said it wasn’t worth the risk of allowing hantavirus to spread through the rest of the country by not quarantining the affected passengers.

Kennedy further praised UNMC members, noting that some officials will be charged with training workers for a biocontainment center currently in development in Kenya.

Kennedy and Pillen both touched on other initiatives Nebraska and the federal government are partnering on, such as new Medicaid work requirements, and USDA-approved waivers that allow states to ban soda and candy purchases using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

While Nebraska was the first state to implement the ban, followed by four other states, such SNAP waivers were blocked by a federal judge’s ruling. Kennedy said he hopes the “crazy decision” gets overturned.

Pillen has said for years that he wanted to restrict soda and candy purchases from government benefits. On Thursday, he said he wants to improve nutrition among children by ensuring they have access to “good food groups” and accused the judge of not understanding food groups.

“(The judge) is against us standing up to make sure to help our kids that need help to be able to eat good foods and not have pop and Twinkies for breakfast, for crying out loud,” Pillen said.

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