Said a health official quoted in "Outbreaks of rabies seem to be rising across the U.S., CDC surveillance shows/The CDC's rabies team says it's tracking 15 different likely outbreaks from New York to Oregon" (NBC News)(citing 6 deaths from rabies in the U.S. in the past 12 months).
"The family petted and fed the animal until it died. They called animal services to pick up the body 'and thank God they did, because when they sent the brain out to be tested, it was positive, and so the whole family had to get vaccinated.... Oh, my gosh, they never would have known if they hadn’t called animal services.'"
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15 comments:
Another Chinese bioweapon.
It's within quotation marks so maybe that's what the health official actually said but I'm going with one "r" too many.
…day before yesterday the back yard camera caught a pack of five young raccoons on the prowl. There’s been several different groups or loners this year. Successful year for them here…
Five years ago I had to invest in a bear proof trash can because our roaming four foot tall raccoon figured out how to defeat three thick bungee cords holding the lids…
Raccoons infected with distemper can also lose their sense of caution around humans.
How many rabies deaths is typical?
…the suggestion is that’s a big number. Feels low to me since the raccoon population appears to be getting larger and the human population appears to be getting dumber…
I mean, have we tried this on people? To make them nicer?
Google sez in the last two decades it's an average of 2.5 though there were 5 in 2021. Almost all cases are contracted due to contact with wild animals.
Rabid foxes were an issue in the neighborhood wife and I first lived in from after leaving grad school. We also once saw a squirrel behaving strangely and called animal services, but they refused to come out because “squirrels can’t get rabies.” I don’t know if that’s true but in this case the squirrel had eaten overripe fruit from our elderly neighbors backyard fruit trees. They had waited too long to harvest and some of the fruit had fallen on the ground where it fermented. Poor little squirrel was drunk.
Time for Hollywood to remake Old Yeller.
What’s missing from the story: The obligatory link to climate change.
“Rocky Raccoon: Teh Reckoning”.
So the cases of rabies are tied to human stupidity.
Not to worry, RFK Jr is giving the outbreak his special attention. No raccoons will be forced to get any vaccines.
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