A Spanish study has concluded that people who live with dogs and therefore are obliged to take them for a walk are at a 78% increased risk of contracting Covid-19. That’s about all I know. They don’t know why this is. I would suggest that the reason is that once you are outside during lockdown walking your dog you are more likely to meet people and talk to them. You may forget about the social distancing rules or you might decide to wander into a shop to buy some provisions which you might have forgotten about beforehand.
The main points of the study:
Walking your dog puts you into situations where there is an increased likelihood of meeting people and in those meetings social distancing might not be adhered to for various reasons. Also, today, people are still not wearing a face covering in shops although it has improved substantially since the early days of the first lockdown.
People are more concerned because the second wave, as it is described, looks worse than the first and therefore people are genuinely worried particularly as there is a lot of talk about ‘Long Covid’ which is concerning because even with mild symptoms you can end up with organ damage and it’s a rather indeterminate set of long term illness which are hard to pinpoint. They create a kind of malaise, which doctors are not very good at resolving. Some people don’t believe Long Covid is a genuine illness.
Anyway, back to the point of the article, if you have a dog and you take your dog for a walk which you must do, beware because according to the Spanish scientists you are at a 72% increased risk of contracting the disease.
The study is: The spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Spain: Hygiene habits, sociodemographic profile, mobility patterns and comorbidities [link to it].
