Buddhist monks draw thousands to Lincoln Memorial on final day of their 15-week journey from Texas

A group of Buddhist monks ended their 108-day Walk for Peace from Texas to Washington with a ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial, where thousands gathered to hear them speak.

The 19 monks — led by the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara and joined by his dog, Aloka — walked 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) across several Southern states — sometimes in frigid conditions — drawing large crowds in churchyards, city halls and town squares. The group, with its message of peace, has captured hearts across the nation and globe, earning it millions of online followers.

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Pannakara urged everyone to practice mindfulness and to always choose kindness, compassion, love, harmony and hope.

“The Walk for Peace is not a protest, it is not to convert,” the monk said, his words ringing out in pin-drop silence. “It's a reminder that hope still exists when people are willing to care. Hope is the final light that must never go out.”

On Wednesday morning, the monks walked single file under bright blue skies, on the warmest day since a snowstorm hit the region more than two weeks ago. The group was followed by about 100 other monks and nuns who had joined them in Washington.

Behind them was a sea of people marching silently, some carrying peace signs. More than 21,000 people followed the livestream online from around the globe, posting messages in Spanish, Hindi, Thai, Portuguese, Sinhalese and many more.

Several monks representing Buddhists in Canada, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand commended the monks' effort. The Venerable Ratanaguna, abbot of the Fort Worth temple and Pannakara's teacher, said he was happy to see the walk bring together such a diverse group of people in Washington.

Tencho Gyatso, niece of the 14th Dalai Lama and president of the International Campaign for Tibet, read a commendation from the 90-year-old monk appreciating the monks' commitment to “promote national healing, unity and compassion.”

“Their initiative illustrates how religious practitioners can contribute in a constructive way to social harmony and public dialogue,” the Dalai Lama said in the statement.

Crowds cheered and thanked the monks from sidewalks as they walked from George Washington University, where they stopped for the night, to Capitol Hill. The monks were greeted by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as they walked near the Peace Monument on Capitol Hill.

Pannakara walked barefoot on Wednesday, holding his staff in one hand and a long-stemmed yellow rose in another. His robe was covered in pins given by municipal and law enforcement officials the monks met and interacted with along the way.

People crowded on sidewalks trying to capture a shot of the monks on their cellphones. Many shouted out “thank you” and “we love you,” which the monks acknowledged with smiles and waves.

On Tuesday, they made stops at American University and the Washington National Cathedral for an interfaith conversation where thousands thronged to hear Pannakara speak about mindfulness and loving kindness.

The group left from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center, a Buddhist temple in Fort Worth. Long Si Dong, a temple spokesperson, said Wednesday that approaching the U.S. Capitol, he felt “deeply humbled and grateful to witness the large crowd walking quietly behind the monks.”

“Seeing so many people move together in respect, calm and shared purpose was a powerful reminder that peace is not a solitary act — it is something we create together,” he said.

The monks' trek has had its perils. In November, outside Houston, the group was walking on the side of a highway when their escort vehicle was hit by a truck. Two monks were injured; Venerable Maha Dam Phommasan had his leg amputated. Phommasan, abbot of a temple in Snellville, Georgia, rejoined the monks near Washington and entered American University’s arena in a wheelchair and joined the group on their walk to the Capitol.

Pannakara gave Phommasan the floor before he spoke during Wednesday's closing ceremony. Phommasan told the crowd he was feeling cold, “but you all make my heart warm.” He said practicing mindfulness made him face the difficult moments after the accident and his amputation with equanimity.

He thanked Pannakara, who he said taught him to be strong.

“He walks like how I run,” Phommasan said as the crowd laughed. “When we walked together, we were very tired, we were cold and we were hot. But, we never gave up.”

Peace walks are a cherished tradition in Theravada Buddhism. Some of the monks have walked barefoot or in socks during parts of the journey to feel the ground directly and help them be present in the moment.

The monks practice and teach Vipassana meditation, an ancient Indian technique taught by the Buddha that focuses on breath and the mind-body connection. Pannakara’s peace talks, given at stops along the way, have urged listeners to put down their phones and find peace within themselves.

Their return trip should be less arduous. After an appearance at the Maryland State House, a bus will take them back to Texas, where they expect to arrive in downtown Fort Worth early on Saturday.

From there, the monks will walk together again, traversing 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) to the temple where their trip began.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Buddhist monks arrive at the Lincoln Memorial during their Walk for Peace, in Washington, Wednesday, Feb., 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Buddhist monks who are participating in a Walk for Peace, walk near the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, Wednesday, Feb., 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Bhikkhu Pannakara, center, leads his fellow Buddhist monks on Capitol Hill, during the Walk for Peace, in Washington, Wednesday, Feb., 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Buddhist monks walk near the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill, during the Walk For Peace, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

People wait for the arrival of the Buddhist monks near the Peace Monument on Capitol Hill, during the Walk for Peace, in Washington, Wednesday, Feb., 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. , left, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, greet Buddhist monks as they walk near the Peace Monument on Capitol Hill, during the Walk for Peace, in Washington, Wednesday, Feb., 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Buddhist monks walk near the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill, during the Walk For Peace, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

To President Donald Trump, "We seem to have things under very good control," as he told reporters Friday evening.

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”

Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate.

Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain's Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests.

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)