Mad Media Disease?

Q: How many people does it take to test 759,000 cows for mad cow disease over 18 months?

A: Too many.

After finding only two infected cows among the 759,000, the Ag Dept. more or less admitted it had been duped by global mad cow hysteria when announcing the inspections. NYT quotes Ag Sec Mike Johanns:

“It’s time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of B.S.E. in the United States.”

Fear advocates, wary of any evidence that life might not be One Big Hairy Risk Demanding Massive Government Intervention Programs, fired back:

“We think this is just absurd,” said Michael K. Hansen, an expert on the disease at Consumers Union ... and a frequent critic of the Agriculture Department. “They’re playing Russian roulette with public health.”

Not exactaly. Russian roulette is one cartridge in six chambers, not one cartridge in 379,500 chambers.

The decision to drop testing levels from 1,000 cows a day to 100 a day is appropriate -- but you know the class action lawyers are loving this decision and are drawing up their lawsuits against the beef industry and anxiously praying for someone to die so they can get the ball rolling.

Photo: Postershop
Related Tags: Mad cow disease, Consumers union, Beef, Meatpacking, Class action attorneys