Almost as soon as the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius became international news, public health experts rushed to assuage the public: This is not Covid-19 . Don’t worry — this is a virus that requires “close contact” to spread. The risk of a pandemic is quite low . But if this apparent certainty from public health leaders amid another emergent health crisis made you recall the earliest days of the Covid-19 emergency, you’re not alone . In February and March of 2020, health authorities also reassured the public that the novel coronavirus was not airborne ( not true ) and said that people shouldn’t wear masks ( whoops ). One of the central lessons of the pandemic was that health experts should not be overly confident in their public pronouncements, because any later changes based on new information could lead the public to lose trust.…