It appears that white-tailed deer, otherwise known as whitetail or Virginia deer, will be spared from complete eradication due to COVID-19, as researchers claim that 60% of the deer population in Michigan and the surrounding area have been exposed to the dreaded COVID-19 virus, and 33% of all such deer have antibodies for the virus, suggesting they recovered fully without a respirator, experimental therapies, or a vaccine.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced last week that “more than half of white-tailed deer living in Michigan have been exposed” to COVID-19, according to The Daily Mail. While many experts fear that COVID-19 could spread in deer populations and somehow spread to vaccinated human populations, they seem to ignore good news: White-tailed deer will not be eradicated by the Chinese virus.
“APHIS collected 481 samples from deer in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania” since the beginning of the outbreak, and antibodies “were detected in 33 percent of the total specimens, but 60 percent of deer in Michigan were found to have been exposed.” National File is not aware of any program via Anthony Fauci’s NIH or the CDC to vaccinate deer, or whether the number of veterinary hospital beds were ever at risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic among cervidae populations. It is also unclear if white-tailed deer are capable of wearing face masks.
COVID-19 among deer has not been isolated to Michigan. In Illinois, 7% of deer had COVID-19 antibodies, and Pennsylvania clocked in at 34%. Shockingly, in New York – where the human population was reportedly hit hard by the Chinese virus – only 18% of deer had been exposed to the virus.
In a statement, APHIS stressed heavily that white-tailed deer “may serve as reservoirs or hosts for the virus” and pose a risk “of cross-species transmission”. They add, however, that “the finding that wild white-tailed deer have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 is not unexpected given that white-tailed deer are susceptible to the virus, are abundant in the United States,” and regularly come into contact with humans.
It is unclear which strain of COVID-19 the deer were stricken with, however, if it was the much-feared “Delta Variant”, experts say that common symptoms are comparable to “hay fever” and those of the common cold.