Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry for February 12, 2025

That’s how most zootonic diseases work.

If this one mutates to transmit between people, buckle up. Anti-maskers ain’t getting out of this one alive.

Not at all. I never liked you. I still don’t like you. I’ll never, ever like you. . . . I hope I was clear.

I still think the govt is behind it…they’re manipulating things in labs, and then letting them out…

Somehow, even less.

Hubby is recovering from his second bout of Covid. Still out there – be safe.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has over 40 hospitals and 800 outpatient facilities in the United States.

As of today, they are back to mask requirements at all of them.

I hope this doesn’t go viral.

Mr Peanut? You might want to talk to a dermatologist.

Okay, let’s look at the range of animals which get SARS-CoV-2 that causes CoVID-19. (Yesterday i mentioned types of mammals which get Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenzas.)

As with the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenzas not all of these mammal species can transmit disease to humans. With those bird flus duscussed yesterday, ill or dead birds have, of course. Infected raw meat or infected raw dairy are a transmission risk. Infected cattle have transmitted to humans. Infected cats have. And historically infected pigs have (very often) so pose a real influenza risk, and infected bats have historically been a risk (different species for different diseases often, though). At this point other animal reservoirs of bird flu have not been a zoonotic risk for humans even though those many types of mammals (listed yesterday) sicken and often die.

Now, for SARS-CoV-2, the animals (besides the chain of infection beginning with horseshoe bats, and incredibly closely related sister viruses being found in horseshoe bat populations in the wilds of Thailand and two other nations — i want to say Laos, and either Myanmar or Cambodia but that is from memory) can infect a range of mammals. Those include cats, dogs, minks, ferrets, otters, a range of other mustelids, a range of foxes including the inaccurately named “raccoon dog”, white tailed deer (which still host Delta here in the U.S. but fortunately it mutated to be more of a problem for deer than humans at this point), binturongs, lynx, gorillas, lions, mountain lions, snow leopards, tigers, coatis, hyenas, and hamsters. There are likely to be others.

Besides the original horseshoe bats, animals known to have transmitted CoVID to humans are ONLY hamsters (Cricetidae), and fur farm American Mink (Neovison vison) which is very genetically distant from similar looking European mustelids like European mink and domestic ferrets Mustela putorius furo)and even quite different genetically from their wild ancestors. See next:

Of those, besides the original horseshoe bats, the animals which are known to have transmitted CoVID to humans are ONLY hamsters (Cricetidae), and fur farm American Mink (Neovison vison) which is very genetically distant from similar looking European mustelids like European mink and domestic ferrets Mustela putorius furo)and even quite different genetically from their wild American mink ancestors. Some other animals besides those two are known to have infected other non-human mammal species (cats, ferrets, American mink, gorillas, otters, white tailed deer, and hamsters). Bottom line: many more mammals have caught CoVID from humans and our waste than have infected humans.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been catching and testing migratory bird for several decades. This in an attempt to determine if there is a danger to both wild, native birds, but also to the commercial poultry market.

Now that I’m on my way.

Do you still think I’m crazy standing here today?

Mr. Peanut is protesting this cartoon!!!