San Diego Zoo Now Administering COVID Vaccine to Animals

Yes, there is good news on the horizon regarding the coronavirus pandemic, but we’re also still stuck in a bottleneck of sorts that has made recovery painfully jarring and disjointed.

The issue now is actually getting America vaccinated.  The Biden administration made major complaints about his predecessor’s work on Operation Warp Speed – which was itself a marvel of modern medicine and American ingenuity.

But now, as authorities attempt to push forward with an ambitious goal of having every adult American vaccinated by the end of May, some are wondering just if it’s possible…especially if zoo animals are getting inoculated before our nation’s school teachers.

Several orangutans and bonobos at the San Diego Zoo have received an experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed specifically for animals. They mark the first known non-human primates to get the shot.

An orangutan named Karen, who made history in 1994 as the first ape in the world to have open-heart surgery, was among those to get the vaccine, according to National Geographic.

Last month, Karen, along with three other orangutans and five bonobos at the zoo, received two doses each of the vaccine, which was developed by the veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis.

Of course, the point ahead of the blurb was a facetious one, but begs the question about where our priorities lie in the distribution of this vaccine to the public at large.

There has been a steady stream of criticism for the vaccine rollout, spanning both the Trump and Biden administrations.  An innovative new one-dose, room temperature jab from J&J could be the answer to breaking the bottleneck we’re in now.