#hendra

Unvaccinated elderly Mare. Euthanised.

The psychology of anti-vaxxers and not particularly one I like to dwell on.

With horse owners in particular, I feel like there’s a lot of elitism involved, combined with arrogance that it wouldn’t possibly happen to them and a heaping pile of making it somebody else’s problem.

At least, that’s for the most vocal, virulent anti-vaxxers. Some are just ordinary people that have been bombarded with the antivaxx rhetorics until they don’t know what to think, but they can be talked around with facts, expert opinion and evidence. A real anti-vaxxer is interested in none of those things.

Horses are, in this day and age, something of a status symbol. Or at least, they’re certainly an expense. And so the group of people that afford multiple horses often correlates with the reasonably affluent yet highly vocally opinionated opponents of human vaccinations.

In short, owning a horse for a particular type of person is a status symbol, and so is a bunch of other trends including anti-vaccination.

I genuinely don’t think it’s a matter of money for the most part, as many vet clinics in Hendra outbreak areas were offering the vaccine course at-cost or steeply discounted. (Zoetis, the  manufacturer, on the other hand, advertises express shipping to clinics for the vaccine as soon as the Scone outbreak was announced.)

I do think there’s a large ‘It wont happen to me’ attitude. For example:

Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association President Cameron Collins urged horse owners who had not yet vaccinated against the virus to consider doing so, but said there was no particular risk for local thoroughbreds.

"This horse was located well away from the general thoroughbred breeding area," Mr Collins said.

“Well away” he said. Sounds good, except the case in Scone was some 200km away from the previous closest case and all those breeding thoroughbreds are definitely within a 200km radius. There’s no magical protection for thoroughbreds either. But I have a sneaking suspicion he might think they do.

Hendra is not anywhere near a doomsday outbreak scenario. 83 horses have died, and 4 humans. It’s not huge numbers, but it’s an emerging disease. It’s growing and spreading. We’re expecting it to get worse, developed a vaccine, and then it gets ignored. It’s very frustrating. You’d think it would be a clue when clinics are refusing to see unvaccinated horses that it’s not just about money, we as a profession seriously think it’s important.

I’m hoping the article you read on Hendra virus and the anti-vaxxer situation we’re facing was this one by the Atlantic because it’s quite good.

My personal take is that horse owners that refuse to vaccinate their horses for Hendra virus value their horse and their ego over the lives of other human beings, veterinarians in particular. They will not be swayed by facts, and are organizing behind loud-mouth bullies to make equine practice in Hendra areas more dangerous than it already is, both physically and legally.

So, some quick and dirty facts about Hendra:

A virus naturally occurring in flying fox bats, which transmits to horses and is basically always lethal. Occasionally transmits from horses into humans, and has a greater than 50% mortality rate with intensive treatment and you’re not side effect free even if you do recover afterwards.

Hendra can present with any symptom, including but not limited to respiratory disease, colic and lameness.

If the horse has an unknown vaccination status, the veterinarian is obliged to wear full Personal Protective Equipment, and ensure anybody else going near that horse is also wearing it, every time. It looks like this:

(Image source)

It takes 1 to 4 days for a Hendra test result to come back.

Veterinarians have been prosecuted by the government for attending Hendra cases and leaving treatments for owners to administer. A vet can be prosecuted if the owner does something putting themselves at risk even if it’s against the vet’s advice, like approaching without PPE.

Here are some of the arguments presented by Hendra Anti-Vaxxers

The vaccine is untested. False. It had less testing than other vaccines before release because it was pushed through as an urgently required vaccine to save human lives, but data has continued to be gatheres.

It has a high rate of side effects. False. It’s had just under 1000 possible, not even proven, adverse effects from half a million doses, making it possibly even safer than the tetanus vaccine, and safer than procaine penicillin, which horse owners seem particularly keen to get over the counter without a prescription.

It’s my choice to vaccinate or not for my horse. I am “Pro-choice vaccine.”

Which is a fascinating point, because surely the vet can have a choice as to whether to treat unvaccinated horses too? I mean, we choose to put seatbelts on when we drive, and there’s no mandatory obligation to treat an animal if we reasonably believe we are at risk.

If they were really about ‘choice’ they’d understand veterinarians have a choice too. Some of them have closed their practices to move out of Hendra areas. Some have stopped seeing horses altogether. Some only see vaccinated horses, and a few choose to charge extra and approach an unvaccinated horse in full PPE, because that stuff isn’t cheap.

And the horse, the creature known for it’s flighty, explosive nature and pathological fear of plastic bags, is not always approachable when all the humans are dressed as plastic bags.

There is a lot of vet hating around the Hendra ‘debate’, which is really more of a ‘tantrum’. And why should vets risk their lives and livelihoods for people that refuse to vaccinate and so obviously hate them? I wouldn’t do it. If somebody is so stubborn about risking my life then I would walk away, even if their animals are suffering or dying. It’s my life. It’s my choice..

Now, most horse vets are more sympathetic to the plight of their equine patients than I am, and would be more likely to consider seeing unvaccinated horses if it was the owner that got sued in the event of a hendra case, not the vet. Because as it stands, the vet doesn’t get to make the choice, they only get the consequences.

If anti-vaxxers want the ‘choice’ about vaccination, then they need to be liable for the ‘consequences’. They can’t get all the choice and none of the consequences, because that simply isn’t fair.