Most things look pretty bad and gross when you zoom in on them close enough.

Masque of the Red death is a Edgar Allen Poe story not De Sade. If De Sade had written it the protagonist would have tried to fuck death.

Sadly the only way to know for sure is to test brain tissue, including in people, so there’s no way to be certain without killing the potentially infected animal/person.

There are a bunch of tests they can do for people that can potentially identify rabies (lumbar puncture, CT and MRI scans, skin biopsy, antibody test) but apparently it can still be easily missed even with all of these tests so they aren’t enough for an accurate diagnoses.

Unfortunately quarantine and observation isn’t effective as a testing strategy for animals, the disease can progress at different rates and it’s possible for infected animals to show no symptoms. As rabies can’t be treated after symptoms start showing, they can’t take the time to do this.

The industry is experiencing historic shrinkage post COVID due to unsustainable growth during COVID.

It’s not an easy transition. My partner works for DDG and I still don’t use it all the time. To their credit they are working to improve things but it’s a small team (comparatively). Their browser has some good features like app tracking protection just from having it installed and quick throwaway email support but isn’t quite up to Firefox’s standard (yet).