Just remember to remain wary of the cute ones.

> Raccoons are a rabies reservoir in the eastern United States, extending from Canada to Florida and as far west as the Appalachian Mountain range. Within these areas, 10% of raccoons that expose people or pets have rabies, making them one of the highest rabies-risks in the United States.

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/php/protecting-public-health/inde...

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fracus 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> 10% of raccoons that expose people or pets have rabies

I don't understand the language of this quote. What does it mean for an animal to expose people?

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MathMonkeyMan 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's an odd framing. Out of R_t total raccoons, R_e bite or scratch (potentially "expose") humans. R_e / 10 of those were carrying rabies. So it could be that raccoons almost never bite/scratch humans, such that the behavioral effects of rabies are a significant motivator. It also could be that raccoons bite/scratch humans all of the time, and a ton of those raccoons have rabies. The latter is scary, but the former is likely the truth.

I wonder if increased interactions between humans and raccoons will lead to a reduction in that 10% figure (more reasons to bite humans).

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cma 3 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's that it's not 10% of racoons have rabies, but 10% of the ones that expose people to a bite scratch etc. The reason the numbers aren't the same, significantly less than 10% of them have rabies, is mainly that rabies itself can make them more hostile etc., on top of if bitten by a racoon that is more symptomatic seeming you are much more likely to get it checked out.

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quadyeast 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

you would think that 100% of racoons that expose people to rabies have rabies.

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kotaKat 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

An “exposure” in this instance to rabies would be physical contact - a bite, scratch, or from its saliva on an open wound for instance.

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davidw 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Is there something that makes raccoons different than say cats in terms of rabies?

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shawn_w an hour ago | parent [-]

Cats get vaccinated against rabies. I doubt there's one for racoons.

	▲	aydyn 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Uh, the rabies vaccine is the same regardless of species.