Comment on I just learned 37% of Americans fear vaccinating their dog will cause the dog to develop autism. 😐
FranciscoLopez@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Wild that rabies doesn’t scare people, but imaginary dog autism does.
People are far more scared of inconvenience than death.
Most people would rather put their pet down than have to care for them in some new way that requires money and attention, and this is what people who don’t understand autism think it is, like they will have to strap their dogs into a special chair and spoon-feed them.
I do genuinely wonder if some amount of vaccine skepticism comes from a place of just not wanting to get a shot.
Rabies is in my top three fears, maybe even number one. Just an absolutely awful way to go, scared, in pain, can’t drink water. I love water.
Good thing it’s extremely preventable thanks to modern medicine. We should all be so lucky that our greatest fear is 100% avoidable through easy life choices.
Rabies is in my top three fears, maybe even number one.
Same. I went on a road trip one summer a few years ago, and we decided to take a long detour through the Appalachian trail for part of the drive.
We had all the windows down and the sunroof open everywhere else outside of the mountains. Anyway, we were going down this really narrow back road, seeing like 1 or 2 other cars every 45 mins to an hour, and eventually got to a point where we had to drive through a really old tunnel.
My first thought was, what if a bat flies in the car lmao. I demanded we roll up all the windows and shut the sunroof before we go through. My husband made fun of me and said I was being ridiculous. I probably was, but there’s way too many documented cases about people who were out in the wilderness, got a tiny bat scratch, didn’t even realize it or think twice about it, then weeks or months later died a slow horrible death. Even if you spend your last days in a hospital there’s nothing they can do except try to make you comfortable (which seems pretty impossible unless they just place you into a medically induced coma).
I also worked with a girl that grew up in Vietnam and said there were multiple times she got bit by stray dogs and had to get rabies shots when she was a kid. I grew up in the sticks always playing with stray cats and dogs, and never thought twice about it back then. Definitely wouldn’t be taking the risk now.
Anyway, tldr, some people seem to be under the impression a fear of encountering rabies is like a fear of someday encountering quicksand. I’ll take my chances being ridiculous, especially after reading the article and learning we’ve now got a fucking rabies outbreak to worry about on top of everything else in the U.S.
I had a hairdresser once that told me about her young daughter getting scratched by a raccoon. I asked if she took her to get the shots and she said “no, she’s fine”. We’re all doomed.
He used to scratch with the left foot but after the vaccine he does it with the right foot!
oh no, my dog can solve a Fourier transform. RUN.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 1 month ago
We humans are victims of our own success. Vaccines work so good at eradicating diseases that people haven’t been exposed to the horrors that we used to. My family has a story about someone loosely related who contracted rabies and was chained to a tree until they died a few weeks later. This was no more than a generation before me!
People really aren’t scared enough of diseases.
ngdev@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
im calling bullshit on whoever told you that. im pretty sure ive heard that same story. also, rabies causes fear of water so theyd likely die of dehydration way sooner
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Checking back in.
Rabies sufferers die from encephalopathic hemorrhaging way before dehydration. So I guess I’m not remembering the timeline accurately.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
It’s a nervous infection, ascending paralysis until coma and death. Aversion to water is the least of the problems.
ngdev@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
oooooo okay neat. rabies is fucking wild
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Eh, maybe. But it served its purpose and scared the shit out of me. I’m curious if rabies sufferers will dehydrate themselves to the point of death. Another wiki hole, here I come!