Once we open the country back up, there’s a possibility that you might be sniffed by a dog before being allowed to go into work every day.
Bet you didn’t see that one coming.
The fact is that the world is very far from having the capabilities to test everyone. That’s where our puppers come in.
Dogs have amazing snoots (that’s slang for dog nose). Like really, really amazing. They can detect the faint odor that wafts off of cancerous cells in human bodies. They are also able to sniff out Parkinson’s disease and malaria in humans.
“We know that other respiratory diseases like COVID-19 change our body odor, so there is a very high chance that dogs will be able to detect it,” professor James Logan, head of the department of disease control at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said in a news release.
“This new diagnostic tool could revolutionize our response to COVID-19 in the short term, but particularly in the months to come, and could be profoundly impactful” he added.
There are currently several organizations working together to determine if our four-legged friends should be mobilized to help us reopen the world.
According to the BBC, the trials could be done in the next few weeks. If successful, the snooters will start sniffing as soon as possible.
“If the research is successful, we could use COVID-19 detection dogs at airports at the end of the epidemic to rapidly identify people carrying the virus,” Durham University professor Steve Lindsay explained. “This would help prevent the re-emergence of the disease after we have brought the present epidemic under control.”