For all the hoarding of those COVID tests that were made in China, it appears dogs might be the better option. I’m not kidding. Some dogs were able to sniff out COVID better than the laboratory tests we all viewed as gold bars over the past 18 months. It’s based on a new study from France where trained dogs were somehow able to lock in on those who had been infected with the virus. It's interesting and gives another reason why dogs are better than cats or any other household animal. Apparently, these dogs could detect COVID through sweat (via Fox 5 DC):
A recent study out of France found that trained dogs were able to detect COVID-19 just as well, or even better, than a regular COVID-19 lab test.
Results of the study, which were published in the peer-reviewed journal Plos One on June 1, showed that dogs detected the virus with 97%-100% accuracy by smelling a participant’s sweat.
To compare, the nasal swab COVID-19 tests that were used in the study were only 84% accurate compared to the results yielded by the dogs.
Researchers conducted the experiment at the Alfort School of Veterinary Medicine using dogs loaned from a French fire department and from the Ministry of the Interior of the United Emirates.
A total of 335 (143 symptomatic and 192 asymptomatic) adults participated in the experiment. Using the nasal swab test, 109 out of 335 adults tested positive for COVID-19 and of those 109, 31 were asymptomatic.
The dogs were less accurate in detecting patients who tested negative for COVID-19 compared to the lab tests (90% v. 97%) but just slightly less, according to the study.
Now, while this shines a light on the amazing ability of dogs, the reality is this is still silly season regarding COVID. You’re telling me dogs sniffing sweat was better than all that nasal swab stuff. Remember when Omicron hit? Everyone was treating these tests like oxygen. If no one had them, they’d have anxiety attacks. Then, we learned that a host of these tests might not be able to detect the Omicron variant. The Biden administration promised to deliver home tests to everyone. That was a disaster. Deliveries were delayed everywhere. It was a harbinger of what was to come regarding the incompetence of this White House.
Dogs are the new COVID test. That’s sort of cool, I guess—but I’m worried the government is going to summon and train legions of other animals to do the same which is beyond idiotic.