Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya is pushing back hard on any suggestion that the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship is the next COVID-19. In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," he defended the federal response and warned against letting fear get out of hand.

"We are in touch with the WHO," Bhattacharya said. "This is not COVID, Jake, and we don't want to treat it like COVID. We don't want to cause a public panic over this."

The outbreak has killed at least three people aboard the ship, and the Andes strain of hantavirus involved is the only one known to spread from person to person. But health officials stress that transmission requires prolonged close contact, not casual airborne exposure like COVID-19.

Still, the virus hasn't stayed contained to the ship. A passenger who returned to Switzerland recently tested positive, marking the first confirmed off-ship case. Health officials are now tracking passengers who returned to the United States and other countries before full contact tracing could begin.

The World Health Organization has said the overall public risk remains low.

Criticism has come from several directions. Former public health officials question whether recent staffing cuts at the CDC weakened its ability to respond quickly. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued the outbreak exposed weaknesses in U.S. disease surveillance systems.

Bhattacharya rejected those concerns, saying CDC outbreak teams had worked "night and day" to stay on top of the situation. He said the agency had been providing technical assistance throughout the outbreak and adjusted its public messaging based on the actual epidemiological threat.

For now, the cruise industry seems to be taking the news in stride. Shares of major operators like Carnival Corp. (CCL), Royal Caribbean Group (RCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) have remained largely unaffected in markets so far.