We’re all gonna die! II
The ongoing mad cow disease flap has meant that Japan is still not importing US beef. There’s talk (again) of negotiations to end the ban, but Japan had been demanding until recently that every [Another quake! This one’s milder, but I hope no one’s getting it big-time somewhere else…Where’s that remote?…Looks like there’s no worry of tsunamis, but the one a few minutes ago was over 6 on the Japanese scale at its center in Niigata. We felt it at 3 or 4 in the Tokyo area, according to the NHK map.] head of cattle be tested. Having been persuaded that the risk can still be minimized with random testing of fewer than 100% (the article doesn’t say how many fewer), Japan may be in more of a mood to negotiate.
What a waste of time and money. The CDC rates the chances of getting NVCJD (the allegedly human version of BSE…no link proven scientifically) at 1 in 3 billion, if you live in an area where BSE has been found in livestock.
It sure as hell isn’t keeping me up at night.
(But how about those earthquakes? Nothing like waking up to one of those…adrenaline ahoy!)
Furthermore, to the extent that a link can be drawn, it just comes from eating nerve tissue, right? When the first scare came roaring through a few years ago and everyone was avoiding yakiniku like the Plague, there were posters all over the place saying that there was no evidence you could get it from eating regular muscle or organ meat. Of course, you never know what’s in ground meat, but that’s true BSE scare or no, anyway.
And yeah, the earthquakes were very perceptible. They lasted, too–all three of them. Got my attention, as you would say.
BSE is passed by contaminated nerve tissue or CSF. But that’s in animals. The link between BSE and cases of NVCJD remains unproven. The prions involved are similar. The plaques are similar. But as to whether BSE is zootropic…no proof yet.
It’s funny how poor people are at risk assessment. How many folks have died in Japan from O-157? Now, there’s something to worry about, yet it has caused significantly less hyperventilation among the public and the press. I guess that because food poisoning isn’t “weird and scary.” Kind of like how folks get unhinged when they hear the word “radiation.”
I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not as if the Japanese had a preference for undercooked meat.
Oh, heavens no!