You smell like Covid
When you land at or come in to Finland’s Helsinki-Vantaa airport you will have a novel greeter. The Finn’s have started using detection dogs to sniff out passengers possibly infected with the coronavirus. Dogs are providing a cheap, fast and effective alternative method of testing people for the virus. Testing has shown an accuracy level of nearly 100% even 5 days before actual symptoms appear. Currently, there are 6 dogs operating at the airport. The dogs are scheduled to continue screening arriving passengers at least until the end of the year, but according to the project leaders, the project is likely to continue. It all started to see whether disease-detection dogs could redirect their skills in sniffing out mold, bedbugs and cancer to detecting the new virus as it began to spread in Europe. “It turned out that training the dogs is a relatively quick process and results were surprisingly good and promising. A dog is capable of detecting the presence of the coronavirus within 10 seconds and the entire process takes less than a minute to complete,” says project manager Soile Turunen of the “Wise Nose” scent-detection foundation.
If the sniff result is positive, the passenger is directed to the Helsinki University Hospital’s health information station for further instructions. Dogs themselves cannot catch coronavirus since they lack the receptor to which the coronavirus attaches. “PCR test cost approximately 4 million euros per month and sniffing less than 100,000 euros” says docent in clinical research of companion animals, Anna Hielm-Bjorkman of Helsinki University. Almost all the dogs have some smell detection background already, with several smells that they recognize and search for. “Dogs learn fast to detect the virus but in addition to the smell of coronavirus, they need to be trained to function in the airport environment which might take more time. Usually the training takes 1-3 months all together,” says project manager Turunen. She outlines that not all dogs are suitable for sniffing duties. Researchers in countries including Australia, France, Germany and Britain are reportedly working on similar projects but Finland is the first country in Europe to actually enlist dogs to work sniffing out the coronavirus.
Faint scent of humor
The moment we find out dogs really could sniff out coronavirus infections…
We’d ask WHO, let the dogs out! WHO! WHO!
Did you hear Pantene recalled all of their women’s shampoo?
Biden said he will personally sniff out this situation.
My neighbor has a 15 acre farm, he breeds dogs to do work on them. He grows cantaloupe and come harvest time the dogs sniff out the ripe ones and bring them back to the barn. He says the breed are Melon Collies.
So they’re going to start shipping Tesla’s without new car smell.
Instead, they’re going to have Elon Musk
What is the capital of Finland if it smelled really bad?
Helstinky.
July 21st Birthdays
1987 – Anna Lynne McCord, 1986 – Diane Guerrero, 1977 – Allison Wagner, 1993 – Jessica Barden
1948 – Kat Stevens, 1980 – CC Sabathia, 1951 – Robin Williams, 1899 – Ernest Hemingway