Almost a decade ago, Jezebel proved, unequivocally (and also scientifically and democratically), that dogs are superior to cats. Unfortunately, cat people, there is no room for discussion here. The decision is final and binding and although you may want to stomp your feet in protest, you cannot change what will live forever on the internet.
Should you, however, be interested in further proof of the superiority of canines over felines, allow me to provide you with this new bit of information: dogs might soon be our best test when it comes to covid-19. That’s right, not only are they more adorable, they’re also smarter. Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?
Medical Detection Dogs, a charity in the UK, has received £500,000 in government funding, along with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University, to train specific breeds of dogs to be able to detect covid-19 in humans via smell.
“We are sure our dogs will be able to find the odour of Covid-19,” said Claire Guest, the co-founder and CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, “and we will then move into a second phase to test them in live situations, following which we hope to work with other agencies to train more dogs for deployment. We are incredibly proud that a dog’s nose could once again save many lives.”
According to the article Guest is quoted in, dogs have been trained to detect low or high blood sugar levels in diabetics, malaria, certain cancers, and Parkinson’s disease. Medical Detection Dogs’ research shows that dogs, once trained, would be able to screen up to 250 people an hour for covid-19.
Now, I don’t know exactly why, scientifically speaking, cats aren’t used for this kind of humanitarian aid, but on a personal level I feel like it’s because I can imagine pretty much every cat I’ve ever come into contact with correctly diagnosing me covid-19, deciding it was own problem, not reporting it at all, and then pushing a vase off a countertop while making direct eye contact with me.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think that cats are bad, per se, I just know that dogs are better. And so does science.