# We have an easy rabies vaccine for various animals. Why not humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 11, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202 "2014-09-11T16:41:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202/21 "2014-09-12T12:08:13Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Antibiotic will do you for Y. pestis. _nod_ Which is why ISIS [apparently plotting to unleash **The Plague**](http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/09/10/revealed-bubonic-plague-recipes-neo-nazi-screeds-celine-dion-and-banana-mousse-on-seized-isis-terrorists-computer/) at some point is/was so amusing and comically inept; because it’s a pretty hard to transmit disease to begin with that comes with a variety of very obvious tell-tale signs, takes a long while to do anything, can only really spread when lots of people are packed up in really unsanitary and downright medieval conditions (i.e. nowhere in the West)… and is easily cured away anyway. But then I guess people with medieval sensibilities gotta stick to medieval plots. And I guess it makes for great scaremongering headlines, too. Everybody wins _sigh_. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202/22 "2014-09-12T12:26:00Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > According to a previous dope thread on the subject, the price difference is due almost entirely to liability costs. It’s more expensive to get sued for a bad batch that kills a human than a dog. Yep. A friend of mine worked in rabies research at the Wistar Institute. The human rabies vaccine is indistinguishable from the canine vaccine, other than the label. Liability costs are responsible for the huge price difference. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202/23 "2014-09-12T14:13:43Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > If you take an active enough interest in your health to consider getting vaccinated, when you get bitten by a squirrel, you’re likely to do something about it (like, see a doctor). Your pets? Not so much. Yep. I know of people who don’t get any vaccines for their pets, because the pets don’t leave the yard. Well, neither does mine- but he still got bitten by something and I didn’t know until the bite got infected and therefore didn’t get him to the vet until a few days later. If his rabies shot hadn’t been up to date, he would have been quarantined for a few months. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202/24 "2014-09-12T14:56:29Z")
It took me a while to find it, but here’s the Straight Dope Staff Report by Jill, who is an honest-to-god epidemiologist: [Why do dogs get vaccinated against rabies but not people?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1730/why-do-dogs-get-vaccinated-against-rabies-but-not-people) ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202/25 "2014-09-16T21:37:46Z")
I heard a recent podcast (maybe?) talking about rabies. I’m too lazy to look up the particular episode, but I remember 2 [DEL]facts[/DEL] pieces of information from the episode. 1. by the time rabies symptoms appear, you’re toast. Shots won’t help anymore. 2. there was a new [radical treatment](http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/viruses101/is_rabies_really_100_fatal) for you – although it is controversial, and has a less than 50% survival rate. J. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Milton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@Mr.Milton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Milton)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202/26 "2014-09-17T12:51:30Z")
Liability costs is right. There is a vaccine for Lyme disease available for dogs, but it is not being made available for humans even though there is an obvious market for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-have-an-easy-rabies-vaccine-for-various-animals-why-not-humans/698202.md?page=1)