March 5, 2020

US viral social media posts falsely blame cattle vaccine for COVID-19

Facebook users in the United States are sharing a cattle vaccine photo that incorrectly states that COVID-19 has been affecting cattle for years, reported USA Today.

The cattle vaccine in the viral Facebook image is ScourGuard 4KC manufactured by Zoetis, used in pregnant cows and heifers so their calves will not be infected by the bovine coronavirus and microbes. The bovine coronavirus only affects cattle.

Christina Lood, Zoetis spokeswoman said the vaccine is licensed by the US Department of Agriculture.

She said COVID-19 and bovine coronavirus come from a different lineage even though they are both betacoronaviruses. The two betacoronavirus subgroups have little cross protection between each other, which means ScourGuard 4KC cannot be used for COVID-19.

Jeremy Schefers, University of Minnesota assistant professor in the department of veterinary population medicine said no person should use animal vaccine as it is dangerous and ineffective.

He said the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director has informed that a COVID-19 vaccine will not be available to the public until a year or year and a half in the future.

-      USA Today