COVID and Cats:
A scientist friend called me last night… wanted to make sure I stocked up on enough masks and supplies for the next round featuring Omicron. We got to talking about severity of variants and what the most likely scenarios are:
1) the virus stays for a prolonged period in an unvaccinated immune compromised individual
2) the virus jumps back into animals and mutates before jumping back into humans
His theory is cats are a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2. And, that cats are spreading COVID to mice and deer… and back into humans. Some studies have shown 20-50% of cats that belong to owners that have had COVID develop COVID. Studies have also found that cats can transmit the virus to other cats. The risk is especially great for pets that share a bed with their owner.
Some other things we discussed:
* the pandemic is going to go on for years
* there is no natural immunity to Omicron
* there may be no immunity from vaccines to Omicron
* the severity of Omicron will take some time to determine… since we don’t know how much immunity / less severe symptoms vaccines may offer, yet. There is some possibility that prior infection may offer some protection to severity, but that is unlikely.
* N95 masks and social distancing offer the best protection to all variants of COVID
* we do not fully understand the long term effects of COVID. Until we do, avoid contracting the virus… and probably after we do understand, it will become clear the reduction in life expectancy and quality of life