One of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is that I’ve been able to write a lot more about dogs and cats than I usually do.
I’ve been trying to keep pet owners updated on what the latest science says about the impact of the coronavirus on pets.
Now, with human vaccines in the spotlight, cat and dog parents might be asking themselves if they need to worry about a vaccine for Fluffy and Fido. The short answer is “no”. Pets–as scientists have long said–seem to play little role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and they don’t seem to suffer serious symptoms either.
But if a pet vaccine was needed, how quickly could it be developed? And what would it look like? I answer these and other questions in my latest story for Science.