Our dogs and cats get yearly rabies shots, where I live its free and the government even sets up a mobile clinic in our neighborhood. One shot lasts them a year and doesn’t seem to have any negative side effects. Why can’t humans get a similar shot when we go in for our flu shot?
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For any medical intervention, the is a risk vs benefit vs cost analysis. It most of the world rabies for humans is extremely rare. Even if you are exposed to it you can get the vaccination up to 3 days after exposure and it still works.
Pets on the other hand can get exposed without the owner knowing about it and could then spread it to other pets and humans. The practical result is if you vaccinate pets that is enough to practialy stop the infection of humans in a large part of the world. Giving humans vaccines is not required so it is not done to the general public.
Vaccine can have complications and if the risk of infection of the general public is low enough the can be more of a problem than the disease. There is alos a cost aspect, just giving it to pets is enough and will be cheaper then if you give it to humans too. So the money can be spent on something better.
For travel to another part of the world where rabies is more common there is recommendation of human vaccination. There might be a requirement for some travel.
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