Meet Buffy, a yellow Labrador retriever who has been specially trained to sniff out the Covid-19 virus at a hospital in Florida. The two-year-old dog trained with Southeastern Guide Dogs for nine months before she started working at Doctors Hospital of Sarasota. Laska Parrow, a certified service dog trainer with Southeastern Guide Dogs, commented on Buffy’s accuracy, telling Fox 13 News:
“She is 95% accurate. We did lots of blind trials where the handler doesn’t know where the virus is and Buffy does because she can smell it.”
Buffy isn’t just a stellar Covid-19 detector, she is also a tail-wagging, four-legged canine “comforter” to patients and staff at the hospital. And when he shift is done, she gets to head home with Robert Meade, the hospital’s CEO. Meade’s family adopted the specially trained pooch. Meade tells PEOPLE:
“She’s become our mascot at the hospital. Everybody loves Buffy. It’s nice for the employees. They’ve been through a lot in the last year. Having Buffy is therapy for all of us.”
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