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.
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Imagine dying a slow and horrible death because Karen didn’t trust the rabies vaccine.
Fucking infuriating.
To everyone who’s ever said, “oh, it’s just harmless fun,” in reference to any kind of pseudoscience: here is just one more example of what normalizing that type of magical thinking can do.
Imagine? It’s fucking happened! Many Karens have died in hospital with ventilators, begging for paxlovid but it was too late.
The surviving Karens then say “See, it wasn’t so bad” or “COVID isn’t real.”
The shape of the Venn diagram about people who don’t vaccinate their dogs, and people who keep their dogs off leash is a circle
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