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I may be crazy but I feel like we shouldn't be giving medicine to animals with communicable diseases (unless the medicine reduces the chances of animal->human t

by AdamN 4mo ago

I may be crazy but I feel like we shouldn't be giving medicine to animals with communicable diseases (unless the medicine reduces the chances of animal->human transmission). We're just reducing the effectiveness of these medicines over time.

drdexebtjl 4mo ago
Citation needed. We ought to have learned after the Covid “herd immunity” policies that killed hundreds of thousands around the world, that infectious disease control should be grounded on actual research, and not on simplified world models. Researchers currently recommend treatment.
- CalRobert 4mo ago
  I think they meant to cull them
  - drdexebtjl 4mo ago
    I understand, didn’t mean to imply they were suggesting herd immunity. But then you’ll have people not taking their cats to the vet because they don’t want them to be culled, increasing exposure and limiting our access to reliable data. My point is, take this uninformed opinion that goes against the researchers’ recommendation for what it is: wrong.
- AdamN 3mo ago
  They recommend treatment because the mandate is to keep the animals alive, not whether or not it's good long term for humans. Many doctors and vets though are against the mass use of antibiotics in industrial farming (literally as a prophylactic so they get the antibiotics just in case) but it's not having much of an impact it seems.
  - drdexebtjl 3mo ago
    > the mandate is to keep the animals alive By whom? > mass use of antibiotics in industrial farming This is a completely different issue. No one's doing mass prophylactic treatment against this fungus, and even if we treated every single cat in the world, there are 60 times more chickens. Industrial farming is on a completely different scale. > doctors and vets Unless they're citing research supporting their opinion, it's as irrelevant as any other non-specialist.
thatguy0900 4mo ago
Most people now treat pets as children, expensive surgeries even are commonplace. Good luck convincing them not to medicate their pet when a medicine for the disease exists
bee_rider 4mo ago
To some extent, maybe. Although, it needs to be balanced against other options. I’m sure this list isn’t exhaustive but we have: * Medicine * Uncontrolled spread * Somehow modify the animals’ behavior to spread illnesses less * Wipe out infected animals 2 and 4 seem less than desirable. 3… I mean “herding cats” is an expression for a reason, right? They are not very obedient in general. Is there a good option I missed?

by AdamN 4mo ago

drdexebtjl 4mo ago

Citation needed. We ought to have learned after the Covid “herd immunity” policies that killed hundreds of thousands around the world, that infectious disease control should be grounded on actual research, and not on simplified world models. Researchers currently recommend treatment.

CalRobert 4mo ago
I think they meant to cull them
- drdexebtjl 4mo ago
  I understand, didn’t mean to imply they were suggesting herd immunity. But then you’ll have people not taking their cats to the vet because they don’t want them to be culled, increasing exposure and limiting our access to reliable data. My point is, take this uninformed opinion that goes against the researchers’ recommendation for what it is: wrong.
AdamN 3mo ago
They recommend treatment because the mandate is to keep the animals alive, not whether or not it's good long term for humans. Many doctors and vets though are against the mass use of antibiotics in industrial farming (literally as a prophylactic so they get the antibiotics just in case) but it's not having much of an impact it seems.
- drdexebtjl 3mo ago
  > the mandate is to keep the animals alive By whom? > mass use of antibiotics in industrial farming This is a completely different issue. No one's doing mass prophylactic treatment against this fungus, and even if we treated every single cat in the world, there are 60 times more chickens. Industrial farming is on a completely different scale. > doctors and vets Unless they're citing research supporting their opinion, it's as irrelevant as any other non-specialist.

thatguy0900 4mo ago

Most people now treat pets as children, expensive surgeries even are commonplace. Good luck convincing them not to medicate their pet when a medicine for the disease exists

bee_rider 4mo ago

To some extent, maybe. Although, it needs to be balanced against other options. I’m sure this list isn’t exhaustive but we have: * Medicine * Uncontrolled spread * Somehow modify the animals’ behavior to spread illnesses less * Wipe out infected animals 2 and 4 seem less than desirable. 3… I mean “herding cats” is an expression for a reason, right? They are not very obedient in general. Is there a good option I missed?