Where this was said
White People Cruises
At 15:55 · chapter starts 13:00
The hantavirus conversation was already percolating — Bobby says four different people had brought it up to him that day — and he finally gets to lay out his full understanding of the virus. Most strains, he explains, are contracted by inhaling particles from rat urine or feces, commonly in rural or agricultural settings in South America. The Andes strain is the dangerous exception: it can spread human-to-human, and it is the strain linked to the cruise ship outbreak. The infected couple originally caught it while bird-watching in Argentina, bringing it onto the boat. Andrew's response is immediate and absolute: 'Stop watching birds. They don't need to be watched.' Bobby then places this in the broader context of 'white people adventurism cruises' — the kind that go to Kilimanjaro, into cave systems, and to ancient temples — contrasting them with the Adam Devine-style cruise he once attended. He notes that white explorers discovered caves in Vietnam before the Vietnamese bothered to enter them, which he takes as evidence of a pattern.
Bobby Lee delivers a surprisingly accurate breakdown of hantavirus: most strains come from rat droppings, but the Andes strain — found on a recent cruise — is human-to-human transmissible. The couple who got it were bird-watching in Argentina. Bobby's verdict: this is a white people problem. Andrew's addendum: stop watching birds.
The Andes strain of hantavirus — the one on a recent cruise ship — can spread human-to-human, unlike most strains that require exposure to rodent droppings.
Not all cruises are Adam Devine cruises. Bobby Lee identifies a specific type he calls the 'white people adventurism cruise' — Kilimanjaro, cave spelunking, ancient temples. These are the people who discovered caves in Vietnam before the Vietnamese bothered to look inside. And now they've brought hantavirus back from Argentina via bird-watching.
