Rabies

Flightless Bird

David Farrier

Society & Culture, Documentary, Comedy

4.9 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier gets bitten by a squirrel, forcing him to come face-to-face with his greatest nightmare: Rabies. Why does this virus have a near 100% mortality rate, and how are you meant to be treated for it? David joins the 60,000 Americans who find themselves having to reckon with the risk of rabies every year, whether they are bitten by dogs, raccoons, bats… or in David’s case, a squirrel. To learn more, David meets fellow victims Courtney and Paul, who all had to have jabs in their arms, legs and butts! David discovers that American emergency rooms can be very expensive, and that rabies makes you terrified of water! For more on his rabies encounter, see Farrier’s newsletter Webworm: https://www.webworm.co/p/rabies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm David Ferrier, New Zealand are accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.
0:07.0	Now I have to be honest with you here.
0:09.0	I feel about 30 to 35 percent more scared in America than I did in New Zealand.
0:15.0	Maybe this says as much about my timid New Zealand brain as it does about America,
0:19.0	but I don't know, things seem scarier here.
0:22.0	When I go on a walk, cars try to run me over way more than they do in New Zealand.
0:27.0	And then there's other weird fears like being sued or offending someone by not tipping enough.
0:32.0	Maybe if I survive all that, someone will shoot me with a sniper rifle when I'm out on a hike.
0:37.0	A tourist is shot and killed on a popular hiking trail in Highland Park, taken out in one shot by a rifle-wielding gunman hiding in faraway bushes.
0:45.0	More recently, I discovered another fear.
0:48.0	This is a voice memo I recorded on my phone.
0:51.0	Okay, so I was in the park and a squirrel bit me.
0:57.0	Ugh.
0:58.0	We don't have squirrels in New Zealand, so in my mind they're basically just a Disney character. They are there to be cute and entertain.
1:05.2	Look, I'm not a boy. I mean, I'm not a squirrel, I'm a boy. A human boy, not a real.
1:14.1	But life isn't a Disney film.
1:16.1	It's full of pain, suffering, and for me,
1:18.9	squirrel bites.
1:20.4	I went home and googled what to do if a squirrel bites you.
1:23.8	See your doctor, came the reply.
1:26.4	I saw a doctor and they said a word I don't think I've ever heard out loud before,
1:31.9	outside of watching a movie.
	...

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