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.
Welp, looks like rabies is gonna have a huge comeback. I bet there’s a huge overlap with antivaxx owners and unleashed pets too.
It’s really sad too.
One interpretation of the cause of this problem is that vaccines are just too effective. No one has polio, not to mention even chicken pox.
A resurgence of rabies (or, god forbid, small pox) will clear that up real quick.
Then again, too much of this planet have been fed a steady diet of propaganda for most of their adult lives.
I literally saw lady letting fucking hellspawn of a child COVERED IN CHICKEN POX run around barefoot at Aldi a few weeks ago. I was so panicked I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t even see them until I was walking out so I just got out as fast as I could. My wife has never had chickenpox, and adult chickenpox can apparently be much more deadly, so it was definitely kind of terrifying.
Get the damn vaccine.
I’ll have to check to see if she’s gotten it. I can’t imagine she’s gone this long without getting chickenpox and not being vaccinated for it, but I don’t think the chickenpox vaccine was as widely known of when we were kids in the 90s.
There’s an adult vaccine, get it and fear not: https://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/chickenpox-varicella-vaccine-guidelines-for-adults
Ahem.
Fwiw the last big smallpox outbreak was in 1962.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079469/
And? All that needs to happen for a major world outbreak now that almost no one has any immunity is for it to escape from a lab or a vial in cardboard box somewhere.
How many millions died from COVID? Try billions.
Let me tell you what, that would sure reduce our carbon footprint and the price of housing.
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Cats too. I hate that people let cats roam, it’s irresponsible and shitty to just let your pet out to do whatever it wants with everyone else’s property. And now there are gonna be unvaccinated, rabid cats roaming and infecting it further.
Hey maybe the apocalypse is coming and this is the start of a zombie/aggressive rabies outbreak!
I’d let my cat out if I had one. They deserve to explore and be happy
They die much younger on average if you do that.
True that.
Do they deserve to explore and suffer horrible injuries and/or death? All the while decimating local bird populations, and, if not spayed or neutered, creating more kittens to live lives full of suffering and hardship?
Yep
Good thing you don’t have cats then, sounds like you’d be an irresponsible owner.
I thought you would love to know… haha, we are e now irresponsible cat owners. ;)
Why would I like to know that you’re proud of potentially causing suffering to your pets and other animals?
Even just today I had to rescue a kitten who had been yelling for hours near my house because their owners let them outside. At least she was microchipped so we could find them easily, but she was not happy about it at all. Came running after me as soon as she saw me, and ran inside the house when I opened the kitchen door.
Never change.
If you say so friend.
Can you imagine if dog people just opened their doors at night, let their dogs fuck off to wreck property, kill pets, get killed themselves, and destroy native birds and animals? They’d rightly be called out and have their pets taken away. Take care of YOUR pet and keep it on YOUR property. I’ve had issues with neighbor cats causing damages to my property, and if your pet becomes my pest, I will treat it as such.
I remember a neighbor’s cat once almost tore through my window screen to get at my pet parrot. If that cat had made it inside my house and attacked my pet, he would not have made it out alive.
Dogs and cats are not the same. And that sucks.
I’m also glad I don’t know you and I bet that is mutual. We can celebrate this non-familularity.
cocks shotgun not if I can help it