More than half of U.S. dog owners expressed concerns about vaccinating their dogs, including against rabies, according to a new study published Saturday in the journal Vaccine. The study comes as anti-vaccine sentiments among humans have exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pets are now often considered to be a member of the family, and their health-care decisions are weighed with the same gravity. But the consequences of not vaccinating animals can be just as dire as humans. Dogs, for example, are responsible for 99% of rabies cases globally. Rabies, which is often transmitted via a bite, is almost always fatal for animals and people once clinical signs appear. A drop in rabies vaccination could constitute a serious public health threat.
In the new study, the authors surveyed 2,200 people and found 53% had some concern about the safety, efficacy or necessity of canine vaccines. Nearly 40% were concerned that vaccines could cause dogs to develop autism, a theory without any scientific merit.
That’s an understatement. I think there are only one or two documented cases ever where someone started to show symptoms of rabies and lived. If I recall correctly those who did live were given massive doses of the vaccine as the moment symptoms were noticed and were mentally incapacitated the rest of their lives.
Not quite, the vaccine is only part of it. The Milwaukee Protocol involves putting the patient into a coma and dropping their body temp so low that the virus can’t spread (should note that low core temps are why marsupials like opossums are damn near immune) because once symptoms are showing it’s actively turning your brain to mush. Between the virus already being present and the coma, brain damage is basically guaranteed despite survival.
Iirc only 29 people recorded as surviving. We should note that rabies has a written record going back to the start of writing. 29, in 4 millennia.
Rabies is scary as fuck y’all. You can get this shit from getting an organ transplant from someone who never knew they were infected after being bitten by a bat while camping last year.
https://youtu.be/kxBIJvNHZg4?si=2MjzGA2caKFIcBcM here’s a video that’s pretty disturbing if you’re wanting to see what dying of rabies looks like. Spoilers, it’s awful.
There’s also a lot of disagreement on if the Milwaukee Protocol works or if it’s something else entirely that we’re just starting to figure out, and if it’s worth the risks of things like lock-in syndrome if it won’t do anything helpful for most people. Radiolab has a pretty interesting episode about it all
Reminds me of my favourite episode of Scrubs
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There is radiolab episode about this, highly recommended. A girl survived who was bitten on her toe by inducing a coma and giving her the vaccine. The idea was that slowed the death march of the rabies to the brain and allowed the body enough time to mount a defense. The treatment had not had a very good success rate.