COVID spread among deer who passed mutations back to humans

[Kamaji]

COVID spread among deer who passed mutations back to humans — with scientists calling it a ‘unique public health risk’

By Lee Brown
July 12, 2023

Oh, deer …

COVID appears to have spread widely among the 30 million deer roaming the US — with some passing mutated forms back to people, according to a government-led study calling it a “unique public health risk.”

Researchers, including several from federal agencies, say they found “at least 109 independent spillovers” of the virus spreading from people to deer, including in New York.

It then mutated while being spread among deer — with the unique strain found in at least three cases passed back to humans, according to findings published Tuesday in the journal Nature.

“Deer regularly interact with humans and are commonly found in human environments — near our homes, pets, wastewater and trash,” said the paper’s author, zoonotic disease expert Xiu-Feng Wan.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/07/12/deers-passed-covid-mutations-to-humans-study/

[Kamaji]

Take it for what it's worth.  The underlying article/study is HERE.

[mountaineer]

I've noticed the deer in our backyard seemed to be sniffling a bit. 

[Kamaji]

I've noticed the deer in our backyard seemed to be sniffling a bit. 

Could always feed em a little horse paste!

[bigheadfred]

Could always feed em a little horse paste!

I thought she meant it was the Hunter in the backyard....

[mountaineer]

Now I'm torn. Do I give them horse paste, or do I try to take away their cocaína? 

[bigheadfred]

Now I'm torn. Do I give them horse paste, or do I try to take away their cocaína? 

If you paste them one first nabbing the stash is easy.

[LMAO]

No more venison?

[roamer_1]

Meh. Its a corona virus. Cattle and dogs are common carriers too.

I wondered early on if the constant exposure to cattle and dogs didn't give rural folks an immunological edge.

[jmyrlefuller]

Take it for what it's worth.  The underlying article/study is HERE.

So... if it spreads among deer AND to and from people via deer, and probably other animals as well—and deer are a species notorious for never staying indoors nor getting within six feet of any human—doesn't that make the whole social distancing and isolation charade pointless? We achieved mass paranoia and depression for no meaningful slowdown in spread. Heck, there was a point in summer 2020 where viral spread showed clear patterns of following wildfire smoke, which was dismissed as supposedly being because the smoke itself caused the symptoms.

[mountaineer]

Yeah, my question, too. Who can get close enough to a deer to be breathed upon by it?