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FACT BRIEF

Is there firm evidence that dogs and cats should be vaccinated against COVID-19?

Friday, January 29, 2021
By Meredith Hertan
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NO

There is no current evidence that dogs and cats need to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In November 2020, the Agriculture Department said it was not accepting coronavirus vaccine applications for these pets because “data do not indicate such a vaccine would have value.” The Centers for Disease Control states that based on current information “the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low."

An article in the medical journal Virulence states that because animals can get infected with COVID-19 after contact with people, the vaccination of pets eventually “might be required to halt further virus evolution.” It notes that “strains evolving independently in reservoir hosts (e.g. mink)” have been “shown to contain viral spike protein mutations and be less readily neutralized by immune serum”—but notes no evidence of this occurrence in cats or dogs.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
US Department of Agriculture: Center for Veterinary Biologics Notice 20-12
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: COVID-19 and animals
Taylor & Francis Online: Virulence—COVID-19 evolution during the pandemic
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.