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The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

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Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#51
> Rabies can be found in many other wildlife species, including raccoons, skunks, coyotes and foxes

It's worth checking with your state's health or wildlife department to learn which of those may have rabies in your state.

There are enough geographical barriers to divide many of those kinds of animals into multiple groups groups that are have either no contact with other groups or only rare contact. You might say have two distinct populations separated by a high mountain range. You can then have a group on one side where rabies is endemic and a group on the other side with no rabies.

A great example of isolated populations is Washington state, where no wild terrestrial mammal has ever been documented with rabies.

Some still freak out on Nextdoor if they see a Washington raccoon wander through their neighborhood in the daytime, posting warnings to keep children and pets inside to avoid rabies. They are partly spooked by merely seeing the raccoon because they know raccoons are nocturnal and so figure something must be wrong with it to make it come out in the daytime. They've often heard raccoons mentioned as rabies carries so jump to that as the explanation.

Raccoons are mostly nocturnal, but they will come out in the daytime to look for food if they aren't able to find enough food at night. In a place where the raccoons are barely getting by they may be out a lot in the daytime and people would get used to it. But at least around here they seem to be fine most of the year. It's only when they are pregnant or have young that they need to come out in the daytime, and that's not often enough for people to get used to seeing them.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#52

The short-term effects of relaxing vaccine requirements won’t be obvious right away, but the consequences will likely compound over time. I don’t know how much time of lower coverage it will take before we start to see measles, rabies, or others become regular problems again. If you’re traveling, it’s more important than ever to make sure your own vaccines are fully up to date. And if you’re in a high-risk group, the…

> The short-term effects of relaxing vaccine requirements won’t be obvious right away, but the consequences will likely compound over time. I don’t know how much time of lower coverage it will take before we start to see measles, rabies, or others become regular problems again. Rabies vaccines have never been required. You're only expected to get them after being bitten by a potentially-rabid animal.

Some countries require them for dogs.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#53

Please stop posting this garbage. The US has 3 to 4000 animal cases per year and less than 10 human cases per year and the 6 cases is within the usual band. There’s no source, no detail, and the “14 potential outbreaks” are just business as usual with hotspots and alerts in those hotspots. The entire article is just a rabies faq stuffed with their ads. Actual CDC data: https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/php/protecting-public…

I wouldn't trust US health data nowadays.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#54
post #6

Here's an article from late August with some detail [1], including the affected states: New York, Massachusetts, Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont. I can't find anything about it on the CDC website though. Edited to add another charming detail from the article: "A 2023 study published in the journal Vaccine found in a nationally representative sample of American…

It's absolutely scary that the CDC hasn't published anything about it. They were the ultimate source of epidemiological information, weren't they? We knew this was coming. But this is the clearest sign yet that we have entered the medical dark ages.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/rabies-outbreaks-...

CDC did publish something. The idea that it's "absolutely scary" is hilarious when you didn't do any research.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#55

Here's an article from late August with some detail [1], including the affected states: New York, Massachusetts, Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont. I can't find anything about it on the CDC website though. Edited to add another charming detail from the article: "A 2023 study published in the journal Vaccine found in a nationally representative sample of American…

> Edited to add another charming detail from the article: "A 2023 study published in the journal Vaccine found in a nationally representative sample of Americans that nearly 40% believed canine vaccines were unsafe and 37% believed that vaccines could lead their dogs to develop cognitive issues, such as autism."

You should always go to the primary source.

Here's the Vaccine paper [1,2]. I don't say this often about papers, but this is total crap. They did a YouGov survey of 2200 people, and HILARIOUSLY, 84% of respondents stated that their dog was up-to-date on the Rabies vaccine (another 5% weren't sure.)

Oopsie! No matter...they just barge ahead with their pre-determined conclusions, and make a model of "Canine Vaccine Hesitancy" based on these responses anyway. BTW, I see no support for the claim that "40% believed canine vaccines were unsafe". The closest survey response is this one, at 30%:

> Most vaccines that dogs receive are not medically necessary

(You'll note that this is not a question about the Rabies vaccine. Just vaccines in general. And, of course, your guess is as good as mine what "most" means.)

The whole paper is almost designed to create a narrative of "vaccine hesitancy amongst pet owners" -- it asks some questions about how people feel about animal vaccine mandates and safety in general, then tries make a a model to predict negative responses (which they call "CVH"), and then they use that to predict opposition to mandatory vaccine policies.

At no point do they actually deal with the fact that the vast majority of their respondents, regardless of opinion, actually vaccinated their pet for Rabies. I don't know if Vaccine is a good journal, but this is just a classic example of a paper that should never have made it past peer review.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02644...

[2] (full text of draft here, where you can see the data) https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/qmbkv.html

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#56
post #18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely scary that the CDC hasn't published anything about it. They were the ultimate source of epidemiological information, weren't they? We knew this was coming. But this is the clearest sign yet that we have entered the medical dark ages.

Yes, the medical dark ages. Not the metaphorical kind either, but the kind where people die foaming at the mouth because their neighbor decided a rabies shot might cause dog autism. The CDC has apparently chosen the new strategy of “if we ignore it, maybe it will go away,” which worked wonders in the 14th century. Soon, every PTA meeting will double as a plague ward while Etsy sellers crank out crystal collars to pro…

I thought perhaps you were joking but it turns out people are also hesitant to vaccinate their pets.

""" About 37 percent of dog owners also believe that canine vaccination could cause their dogs to develop autism, even though there is no scientific data that validates this risk for animals or humans. """

https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/nearly-half-of-dog...

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#57
post #56
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the medical dark ages. Not the metaphorical kind either, but the kind where people die foaming at the mouth because their neighbor decided a rabies shot might cause dog autism. The CDC has apparently chosen the new strategy of “if we ignore it, maybe it will go away,” which worked wonders in the 14th century. Soon, every PTA meeting will double as a plague ward while Etsy sellers crank out crystal collars to pro…

I thought perhaps you were joking but it turns out people are also hesitant to vaccinate their pets. """ About 37 percent of dog owners also believe that canine vaccination could cause their dogs to develop autism, even though there is no scientific data that validates this risk for animals or humans. """ https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/nearly-half-of-dog...

> I thought perhaps you were joking but it turns out people are also hesitant to vaccinate their pets.

Incorrect. Of the respondents to that paper's survey, 84% said that their pets were fully vaccinated for Rabies.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45329845

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#58
post #57
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought perhaps you were joking but it turns out people are also hesitant to vaccinate their pets. """ About 37 percent of dog owners also believe that canine vaccination could cause their dogs to develop autism, even though there is no scientific data that validates this risk for animals or humans. """ https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/nearly-half-of-dog...

> I thought perhaps you were joking but it turns out people are also hesitant to vaccinate their pets. Incorrect. Of the respondents to that paper's survey, 84% said that their pets were fully vaccinated for Rabies . [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45329845

How does your highlighted quote refute injidup‘s claim?
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