I can unequivically say that I am more qualified in this matter than your human doctor who gave you bad advice, and the first thid above exceptng I was told when I started my career (by the doc from the health department) is that when it comes to zoonotic diseases, you will be the expert and advocate for yourself, because the human clinicians don't have a clue.
I agree with almost everything you said except for the very last statement. I would modify it focusing on the rabies question by saying that as a certified family practice physician I know from 40 years of practice experience that 99% of primary care physicians would have advised PEP to the OP given his story. During my career I certainly had many opportunities to deal with bat exposures in my patients AND to discuss with peers cases we had encountered. I can also say that the importance of rabies prophylaxis and the dire consequences was drilled into our heads as medical students and residents and we were required to watch training films (no videos in those days) of people ill and universally dying of rabies. Like any profession (I am sure veterinarians and vet techs as well) there are a few who somehow miss the message. Based on what we know of this case, the advice given was definitely an outlier. Hopefully the OP will so advise his doctor. Period.
At the risk of over-complicating the issue, the WHO categorizes exposure as follows:
WHO PEP Rabies Recommendations
WHO recommends PEP for category II and III exposures (see Table 1).The WHO rabies exposure categories are:
Category I touching or feeding animals, animal licks on intact skin (no exposure);
Category II nibbling of uncovered skin, minor scratches or abrasions without bleeding (exposure);
Category III single or multiple transdermal bites or scratches, contamination of mucous membrane or broken skin with saliva from animal licks, exposures due to direct contact with bats (severe exposure).
ID PEP schedules are cost- and dose-sparing and cost-effectiveness increases with numbers of patients seen in clinics. If a repeat exposure occurs within 3 months of completion of PEP, only wound treatment is required, neither vaccine nor RIG are needed.
All of this information provided in post 98 has been included, in some cases multiple times, in this thread except about all other professionals, except those in the veterinary field, being categorically clueless about zoonotic illness. As I recall, we were advised to seek counsel of other professionals and to respect their knowledge and integrity and to seek advice of experts in any field in question if we ever felt unsure of our knowledge base in the subject.
Finally, if there are only one or two cases, (should be zero) in the US per year of rabies compared to the approximately 60,000 cases worldwide, knowledge of rabies risk in bat exposure is pretty good in not just professionals but the population at large.
Denis