Well, with all the crime, bad governance, the smell, and general awfulness I wasn't really planning on going to New York anytime soon.
But with this latest news... Yeah, I'll probably never go.
New York City has a rat problem. And the problem is that they can now carry Covid.
I mean, they're largely unvaccinated, so what did we expect?
From Newsmax:
A new study found that rats in New York City are carrying COVID-19, and researchers have sounded the alarm that they could infect humans with it.
Published Thursday in the American Society for Microbiology's mBio journal, scientists at the University of Missouri said that they trapped 79 rats from the city's sewer systems and found that 13 had the virus previously, with four currently infected.
Okay, let's round it up and say they caught 80 rats and 4 had Covid. That's 5% of NYC rats that happened to have the virus when they were nabbed. That's an insane statistic.
Although to be fair, Covid does tend to make one sluggish and easier to catch.
A separate test where some rats were exposed to the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated that each showed signs of contracting the virus two to four days after infection.
"Our findings highlight the need for further monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in rat populations for potential secondary zoonotic transmission to humans," said Henry Wan, a lead researcher on the study and professor at the University of Missouri.
"Overall, our work in this space shows that animals can play a role in pandemics that impact humans; and it's important that we continue to increase our understanding so we can protect both human and animal health," he added.
Right, well, here's an idea. DON'T LIVE IN RAT-INFESTED PLACES LIKE NYC!
The study's conclusion comes despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official position that animal-to-human transmission of COVID-19 is rare and that "there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading" the virus to people.
