>>86222656there's a difference between having contracted the virus and 'having rabies' in the same way you can be HIV-positive but not 'have AIDS' yet.
they check on the brain to see if the animal has rabies. it has to be done incredibly quickly. if you can't make absolute sure it doesn't within, like, 24-48 hours (?) of being bitten, they have to pre-emptively give you the series of incredibly painful shots (though it's better than it used to be)
then you're basically getting a vaccination. it's a weak, shitty virus that takes a while to get entrenched, so you can actually beat it to you, so to speak
