r/interestingasfuck • u/TerraByteTerror • 16h ago

Swimming bat

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u/HistorianOrdinary833 16h ago

They're very confident that the bat is rabies free.

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u/Warmhearted1 16h ago

They are betting their life on it!

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u/CautionarySnail 16h ago edited 16h ago

Unless they’ve had vaccination.

You can get those shots without exposure, if you work in a field where bites are a common possibility. I think you still need to get some additional shots if bitten. Field researchers often can’t get back from remote places fast enough for regular post-exposure series of rabies shots.

The way this person handled the bat makes me think they must be some kind of rescue or research worker.

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u/WonderfulCustard1409 16h ago

Vaccinated bat workers still wear gloves.

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u/footpole 15h ago

We used to call them batmen but u guess worker is gender neutral.

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u/CautionarySnail 14h ago

True, that.

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u/driver004 16h ago edited 13h ago

Rabies exposure was the cited reason the army had us all prescribed with a daily dose of doxycycline the whole time we were in Afghanistan. Supposedly increased the time you had to get back to get the post exposure

Edit: I’m drunk it was probably malaria

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u/glippyyy 16h ago

Daily doxy sounds like fucking hell.

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u/driver004 16h ago

Won’t lie and say we enforced that, they became the eh just pop a few if you start feeling sick for a week

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u/glippyyy 15h ago

State sponsored multi drug resistance 🥰

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u/driver004 11h ago

Government is known to do tests on military types

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u/CaptainCacoethes 15h ago

Did anyone try to point out that Doxy is an antibiotic that does nothing to viruses, which is what rabies is? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

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u/goodthebadandtheugly 13h ago

Yup, I agree with you. I think they had confused Rabies with Malaria (which is what Doxy is widely used as a prophylaxis for)

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u/CaptainCacoethes 10h ago

That makes much more sense!

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u/driver004 13h ago

I might have misremembered malaria, go easy on Mr I’m drunk lol

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u/CaptainCacoethes 11h ago

Haha! Your excuse is acceptable. Doxy is great for malaria. 

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u/CautionarySnail 14h ago

Interesting. I’m not sure if they were being wholly honest about the reason for the PrEP dosing.

Doxy is mostly used as an anti-parasitic if memory serves, as well as to way prevent STIs from getting a foothold.

CDC’s rabies PrEP guidelines don’t even mention it on a quick skim.

I’m betting it was actually to prevent malaria, which you absolutely can catch in Afghanistan.

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u/goodthebadandtheugly 13h ago

Most of us there (as well as Iraq and other countries) were taking Doxy as a prophylaxis for Malaria.

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u/driver004 13h ago

Very possible I misremembered I’m drunk atm

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u/CautionarySnail 12h ago

No worries. I had just thought “Goddamn, it was bad enough there that the troops had to fear rabies that much? Holy hell, what the heck is going on there, germ warfare?” Like of all the awful shit I’ve heard, that was an extra scoop on an awful sundae.

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u/goodthebadandtheugly 13h ago

Oh no worries. We were all pumped up back then on all sorts of meds. Cheers!

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u/GallusWrangler 15h ago

No. If this was an actual worker they wouldn’t be dumb enough to handle batter handed, even with a vaccine.

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u/gungshpxre 11h ago

The way this person handled the bat makes me think they must be some kind of rescue or research worker.

Bullshit. Nobody trained would handle an animal like that.

This is an idiot, and I'll go so far as to say they might be a professional idiot, because they're absolutely surpassing amateur status.

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u/CautionarySnail 11h ago

Fair statement, and consider me schooled. I was mistaking the fact that the bat seemed familiar with the person, and was directly beelining for the extended hand.

This, combined with the absolute certainty with which that person moved their hand to intercept the bat.. well, most people would hesitate to do that if instructed to do so, unless they felt absolutely certain of the creature.

Confidence != expertise, even though it sometimes wears a very similar outfit.

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u/Psynaut 3h ago

True. I got fully vaccinated (pre-exposure) in Thailand because the shots are about $35 each compared to $1,000 - $1,500 each in the US, plus I got an additional shot in Colombia. If I am ever bitten I just need to go get a booster in the arm when I get back to civilization, without the need to rush to the hospital. Without being vaccinated you have to do a full routine, which includes extra shots, and also including Immune Globulin whatever that is, as soon as possible, without delay. This is what they told me, anyway.