Slashdot Mirror
Mad Cow Disease Confirmed In California
New submitter wave9x writes "The United States Department of Agriculture confirmed today that the nation's fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, sometimes referred to as 'mad cow disease' was found in a dairy cow in California. The animal has been euthanized and the carcass is being being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed."
And this would be based on what exactly?
So we only have an estimated population of around 7 billion people, yet as of November 2006 there were 200 individuals worldwide diagnosed with mad cow disease, including 164 people in the United Kingdom, 21 in France, 4 in the Republic of Ireland, the 3 in the US, 2 in the Netherlands, and 1 each in Canada, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Spain, according to the CDC. Of these individuals, most (170) had lived in the UK for over 6 months during the years 1980-1996; 20 others had lived in France during that time. [taken from: http://rarediseases.about.com/od/rarediseases1/a/vcjd.htm ]
So using CDC math we should only have a 0.7 reported cases........
Never happened. True story.
Maybe because the irrational fear that surrounds something with a transmission rate of 1 out of millions can affect the market far more so than actual health of the population at large. If this tells us anything at all (which I doubt) it would be something about the emotional factor in futures trading.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
duh!
obviously they have tested 10 billion people
As markets shut their doors to US beef, the disease is far more likely to affect your 401k than your brain.
You twits who keep sneering at people with "irrational fear" seem to think nothing should be done about an incident that could be the start of an epidemic if not dealt with promptly, or a massive disaster that could poison an enormous amount of populated land for generations.
Whether it's nuclear power in the hands of amoral incompetent business types or deadly diseases, you idiots believe you're experts and know better than the actual experts. Well, you don't, so why don't you just shut up and appreciate those who make tangible contributions to keeping you safe.
How long before I go completely vegetarian?
Enjoy dying horribly from contaminated spinach, tomatoes, lettuce, et cetera.
If eating is going to kill me, I choose to die by the steak.
Of course, we are just starting to look for it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Actually the odds are better that you kid will be killed by a car (77 to 1), drowning in a bathtub ( 685,000 to 1 ) slipping and killing himself/herself in the shower (2,232 to 1) even being struck by lightning (576,000 to 1 ) hell they even have better odds of dating a supermodel (88,000 to 1) or striking it rich on antiques roadshow ( 60,000 to 1). Here is the source so I'd say out of ALL the things we parents ACTUALLY have to worry about BSE is pretty damned low on the list. Not saying that can't change, not saying we shouldn't do our best to protect the food supply, just saying panicking is probably pretty unwarranted ATM.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The problem is: 1) Cows SHOULD NOT even get infected. That means that cows are fed lightly processed cow meat. 2) BSE is a disease with very long incubation period. If BSE infected food supply then we can start getting many new infections. 3) BSE is incurable and always leads to death.
I have no mod points but I feel you should be modded insightful and not as funny. It's too sadly, tragically true to be funny.
Actually the odds of being killed by flu was enormously lower in 1917 than in 1918: "The unusually severe disease killed up to 20% of those infected, as opposed to the usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%" [Wikipedia]. If you were in the 20-40 age range the spike was even larger.
That's why brain-fitted humans are slightly more nervous about infectious diseases than shower slipping: unless the "One Lamborghini Per Child" program is implemented, illnesses have a far greater potential of quickly changing their odds of terminating your life than the other causes of death you cited.
Sorry, but after the ride you guys gave other countries after outbreaks of BSE, you deserve it this time.