Calico cat alleviates the unease of being Covid vaccinated in Manila

I know that not everybody is anxious about being vaccinated. However, there will be a general sense of unease in facilities where Covid vaccinations are being administered. This is why it is so pleasant to see a calico (tortoiseshell-and-white) cat sitting on one of the seats in the waiting area, in line for their vaccination 🙂 . It is amazing how such an innocent picture of a cat can get so much attention. I put it down to the charm and power of the domestic cat.

Cat alleviates the unease of getting vaccinated against Covid in Manila, the capital of the Philippines
Cat alleviates the unease of getting vaccinated against Covid in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Picture: Facebook.

The Manila Public Information Office published the photograph (a nicely taken photograph by the way) on their Facebook page. The cat has become a bit of a social media star. This must be a stray cat who appears to be very comfortable around strange people.

The vaccination centre in this instance is the Moises Salvador Elementary School. The photo has caught the attention of Filipinos and others earning in over 5,000 ‘Likes’ and reactions.

LOOK: A cat was spotted alongside with the general public waiting in line to get vaccinated by anti-COVID19 at Moises…

Posted by Manila Public Information Office on Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Note: This is an embedded FB post. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.


One Filipino commented: Kung [andiyan] ako, kinuha ko na si Cat which translates in English, according to Google, as: ‘If [I] had, I’d have taken Cat’. I take that to mean that they would have liked to take their cat to a vaccination centre if they had a cat. This implies that this cat is performing a service to those in the queue. She is a pleasant diversion.

Another Filipino wrote: Buti pa ang pusa, willing magpa-vaccine. This translates into English as: The cat is still in good health, willing to take a vaccine. Quite a few people commented that the cat is patiently waiting to be vaccinated. And while waiting she grooms herself as cats are often prone to do.

This brings to mind the more serious issue of vaccinating cats and dogs for Covid-19. This topic is coming to the surface more often as it becomes increasingly important. The vaccination of pets is not going to happen any time soon. However, it would not surprise me that a vaccination for Covid is included in the standard pet vaccinations in the future.

This would be to avoid this zoonotic disease becoming present in the pet population as a reservoir. The diseases which affect cats and dogs are nearly always not zoonotic i.e. transmittable between animals and people and vice versa. But in the case of Covid it is zoonotic. That’s why it’s more important to think about pet vaccinations against the disease.

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