Heyo! Got very distracted with another post of yours, but I was wondering if you had a post busting myths about rabies without the scary misinformation attached?
I'm worried people will take their time to read through all those stories, think they're learning something, and not make it to your addition because the whole post is quite long. Or internalize too much fear and wrong info along the way
Correcting misinformation from the viral “rabies education” post
Hi, my name is Nessie/Lochlan O’Neil and I am a biologist and actual rabies educator and this post is to dispel some misinformation on a viral post about rabies that has been going around since 2018. (You have my full legal name so you know I’m not just some stranger. I also did a rabies and raccoons panel at Dashcon 2)
Myth: “You have to take an anti allergic shot in order to get the vaccine.”
Fact: IDK where this person got that idea, but that is not true. There is an HRIG (human rabies immunoglobulin) shot, but that just gives you immediate immunity to rabies, stopping the virus in your body in its tracks, and gives the rabies shot time to work. It’s fine, it’s not scary. It’s a regular sized needle and a regular sized vaccine, they just break it up into a bunch of little shots around your wound like they do with dry needling.
Myth: You have to get rabies shots in each limb and in your ass.
Fact: The poster who was spreading this information received improper rabies PEP. For one, the guidelines since the 80’s have specifically stated NO RABIES SHOTS IN THE ASS. Second, the shots go around the wound. And now, in 2025, it’s just one shot every few days.
Myth: The rabies vaccine is not as effective for immunocompromised people
Fact: Rabies post exposure treatment is just as effective for immunocompromised individuals. You just have to get one extra shot and you're fine.
Myth: Docility is also a very common symptom of rabies
Fact: Docility in rabies is incredibly rare. In reality, animals that are overly docile are more than likely habituated. Or, if they seem sick, they have distemper. STILL DO NOT TOUCH WILDLIFE.
Myth: Rabies makes raccoons’ eyes glow radioactive green
Fact: Distemper makes raccoons’ eyes glow radioactive green (also, I checked with OP who shared this story in the original post, and it was distemper that raccoon had, not rabies)
Myth: “Literally any wild animal is a rabies vector.”
Fact: While any mammal (and some birds) can get rabies, “rabies vector" is a specific term applied to specific species and varies from place to place. In Alaska, arctic foxes are rabies vectors. In Tennessee, red foxes, skunks, and coyotes are rabies vectors. Animals like rabbits and deer and bears are not rabies vectors. The #1 rabies vector world wide is the domestic dog.
Myth: All you need to do to get rabies is come in contact with an animal's bodily fluids through some open wound.
Fact: This one is kind of true, but only certain bodily fluids like saliva, vaginal fluid, milk, eye gunk, snot, spinal fluid, and brain matter. Rabies cannot be transmitted through blood or urine. You can also get rabies through any hole (including your eyes), not just cuts.
Myth: The paralytic stage of the disease is useless for spreading rabies
Fact: The paralytic stage is very useful for spreading rabies to opossums and other scavengers and is just as contagious as any other stage of the disease.
Myth: Opossums are immune to/are resistant to rabies due to their body temperature.
Fact: Opossums are found rabid just as frequently as most other non-rabies vector species. There is no proof showing any kind of resistance due to their low body temperature. Rabies in opossums is likely under reported due to this myth and the fact that they tend to get paralytic rabies and thus are not out attacking people.
Myth: In all of recorded history, one person survived an infection after she became symptomatic
Fact: Dozens of people have survived rabies after becoming symptomatic. You are talking about Jeanna Giese, and even then, we don't actually know if she or any of the other "survivors" actually had Rabies lyssavirus to begin with. There are many lyssaviruses that cause rabies other than Rabies lyssavirus, and there are lyssaviruses that causes survivable diseases that look just like rabies. Although Jeanna’s CSF tested positive for rabies, the test they ran was unable to distinguish rabies lyssaviruses from other lyssaviruses. Lyssaviruses are also under researched and we are still learning about new ones every year. Like frog “rabies.”
For reference, on the left is American treefrog lyssavirus and the right is Rabies lyssavirus. To the test they would be the same.
Myth: Rabies education comes across your dash “because some fuck up calls themselves Rabiosexual.”
Fact: People who jokingly identify as "rabiosexual" are simply having a silly time and have actually been the most receptive to rabies education. Even if the whole rabiosexual meme didn’t exist, you would still be seeing rabies education because I am a rabies educator and I live on tumblr dot com
Myth: If you see any animal other than a dog who’s been attacked by a porcupine? It’s rabid. everything else in the animal kingdom knows better than to mess with a porcupine, unless their brain is being ravaged by something beyond their control.
Fact: Read the actual study. 3 nonrabid raccoons had quills in their face, five rabid raccoons had quills in their face. Small sample size. Anyway, animals are stupid as hell. Raccoons get drunk on human alcohol for fun.
Myth: As a child, Louis Pasteur watched a man from his hometown die slowly, painfully, and unstoppably from rabies from a rabid wolf bite
Fact: It was a dog. DOMESTIC DOGS are the #1 rabies vector worldwide and remembering this fact keeps people safe.
And remember…
Do not get your rabies education from viral posts made by strangers on tumblr dot com
