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.

  • edric@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Welp, looks like rabies is gonna have a huge comeback. I bet there’s a huge overlap with antivaxx owners and unleashed pets too.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      As the disease progresses, the person may experience delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, hydrophobia (fear of water), and insomnia. The acute period of disease typically ends after 2 to 10 days. Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal,

  • randalthor17@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Do these people actually want to experience rabies, a disease with 99.9999999999% death rate, for themselves? Well, good luck for them, and natural selection will prevail.

    • Ertebolle@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Sure, but with the much bigger minus that rabid dogs are also likely to bite a lot of perfectly innocent people, particularly kids, and even more particularly, kids who have crazy anti-vaxxer parents that might not get them a (human) rabies shot in time to save their life after a dog bite.

      (note how many kids die of self-inflected gunshot wounds because their parents are too stupid to keep them safe from those)

      • uphillbothways@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Any evolution or opportunity for it through any spread, especially in human adjacent vectors, is super bad news. A respiratory communicable rabies would be a potential “doomsday virus”. We really don’t want rabies picking up any new tricks.