A comparison between Mad Cow Disease and COVID-19, just for perspective...

[abqtommy]

I agree that COVID-19 is bad. But there's a lot of information about survivability and that's good.

I previously posted about the hazards of tropical diseases* and just a few minutes ago I was thinking
about other world health alerts I'm familiar with. I came up with Mad Cow Disease that causes the
variant Creutzfeld-Jakob-Disease**. There aren't any incidence maps but lots of chilling information.

* https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213035502

** https://healthresearchfunding.org/18-profound-mad-cow-disease-statistics/

Excerpt: (much more at link** above)

"18 Profound Mad Cow Disease Statistics

Mad Cow Disease is one of the few transmissible diseases that can affect humans, although direct transmission isn’t possible. It is a fatal brain disease and is known to cause the variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, which causes the same symptoms and end result. It is spread through the recycling of cow carcasses back into the livestock’s food supply. The bones are ground up to create protein and then this is fed to the cow. In cows and humans, the disease causes deficits in movement, behavioral changes, and memory disturbances.

Statistics About Mad Cow Disease

1. Eating the muscle tissue of a cow infected does not cause an increased risk of CJD development. It comes from eating the spinal, nervous, or brain tissues of an infected animal.
2. About 85% of the cases of human CJD are considered sporadic, with no known cause behind the development.
3. The number of people who have died because of CJD in the United States: 4.
4. Only four cows in the US have ever been known to be infected with Mad Cow Disease.
5. The number of cases of Mad Cow Disease that have been reported in Canada: 19.
6. In Great Britain, it is believed that over 180,000 cattle have been infected and destroyed because of Mad Cow Disease.
7. The prions that cause Mad Cow Disease are extremely hardy, able to survive in heat that exceeds 1,700F.
8. In 2011, there were only 29 cases of the disease reported around the world, which is a 99% decrease from the record high of 37k cases in 1992.
9. Milk and milk products are not believed to pose any risk for transmitting mad cow disease to humans.
10. The first person to develop symptoms of what turned out to be CJD became ill in January 1994.
11. Symptoms typically don’t start showing up until several years after infection, sometimes taking nearly a decade to appear.
12. By October 2010, a total of 222 definite and probable variant CJD cases had been reported worldwide in residents of 12 countries.
13. Almost five million cattle have been slaughtered to stop the spread of Mad Cow Disease.
14. Mad Cow Disease is sometimes thought to be a variant of a similar disease that affects sheep called Scrapie.
15. In 2010, only 11 infected cattle were registered in the United Kingdom.
16. There are two identified strains of Mad Cow Disease and the atypical strain is believed to occur spontaneously, as it appeared to do in the fourth US case of the disease.
17. In Canada, the chances of a cow having this disease are 3 to 8 per 1 million livestock.
18. In the United States, the chances of an infected cow being in any given herd: 0.167 per 1 million."

When I lived in Wisconsin in1997-2005 there were news reports about deer hunters that came down
with CJD because they were eating the brains from the deer they killed. I don't have a link for that
but it's an illustration of how stupid people can be.

So we survived CJD, except for those people that didn't. The CJD cauused widespread economic harm with many animals killed to prevent the spread of it.

We can survive COVID-19 with what we know now and the odds of that will improve as more new information comes out. Don't be afraid. Take actions to guarantee survival. Don't be stupid. All this
is always good advice!

[customerserviceguy]

1. Sounds like apples and oranges to me. n/t

[abqtommy]

2. I wouldn't call two different international health concerns apples and oranges, but that's just me.

[customerserviceguy]

3. That seems

to be about all they have in common, the way that I read your OP. Mad cow disease was easy to avoid, this virus is easy to catch.

[abqtommy]

4. You're right. A lot of people survived Mad Cow but some didn't. I want me and mine and lots

of other people to survive COVID-19 and I think we can. How about you?

[cwydro]

5. I don't see any comparison whatsoever.

Mad cow was not spread person to person.

I was in Europe during that time, and had no worries because I never ate beef, rarely ate meat at all.

This virus can attack anyone, and it has nothing to do with what one eats.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Of course

My plan is to hunker down. Other than a necessary medical appointment for my lady on Tuesday, we're staying home, have plenty of food and medicines.

I'm just puzzled why you would think that mad cow disease could teach us lessons for COVID-19. I know there was a panic over mad cow, but a lot of that was fueled by Oprah Winfrey. That's how she met Dr. Phil, you know. When the cattle people sued Oprah, he taught her how to fool a jury into thinking that she was not responsible for libeling their product.

[abqtommy]

11. I think that you need to start your own Original Op. You're getting way off topic. As for me,

my passion for perspective leads me to learn many lessons that others miss. I'm glad we can agree about surviving...

[Spider Jerusalem]

20. Not many people got vCJD; those who did didn't survive it (it has a 13 month life expectancy).

[cwydro]

8. Agree.

Not seeing anything similar in these diseases.

This one is worldwide and spread person to person. Looking to be a pandemic. Mad cow was none of those things.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. CJD isn't an airborne respiratory infection, so there's zero comparison (n/t)

[abqtommy]

9. I disagree. COVID-19 isn't the seasonal flu either...

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. You couldn't and can't get CJD from exposure to people infected with it

so yes, there is zero comparison.

[abqtommy]

13. Just answer this: are you ready to survive COVID-19?

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. That's a fantastically stupid question, really?

I can't control whether I may or may not be exposed to coronavirus infection since it's airborne and respiratory. It has an estimated mortality rate of something like 3.4% (meaning that around three out of every hundred people who get it will die); so far, 3460 deaths are attributed to this variant of coronavirus. For purposes of comparison, as of 2018, the number of fatalities from variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (aka 'mad cow disease') in the UK was 128 out of a population of 64 million, some significant percentage of whom can be assumed to have eaten beef. So the infection rate and mortality rate in humans of prion disease from beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy is extremely low; you literally have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than you do of dying of vCJD, in the UK (between 30 and 60 deaths per year from lightning, vs around four deaths per year, averaged, from vCJD).

[abqtommy]

16. Then we're even since you gave a fantastically stupid answer.

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. "tell me, do you remember this very rare brain disease you got from eating tainted beef?"

"That was blown way out of proportion by the media, amirite? So you totally don't have anything to worry about from this infectious, airborne illness that has estimated mortality rates higher than anything society has dealt with in the past 100 years! Chill out!"

[Claritie Pixie]

12. What are you comparing? No similarities between Mad Cow Disease and COVID-19.

Prevention, transmission, and the diseases are different.

It's not as simple as just not eating cow brains.

[abqtommy]

14. Are you ready to survive COVID-19? Lots of people survived Mad Cow...

[Claritie Pixie]

17. What does that even mean?

[Ms. Toad]

18. To survive CJD - don't eat meat and you will survive unscathed.

The only way to contract CJD it is by eating meat.

To survive COVID - it's a coin toss. Transmission is frighteningly easy - the neighbor who drove the New York attorney to the hospital contracted it, as did all of the neighbor's family. Once you contract it - the death rate is relatively high. So there is nothing I can do to guarantee survival of COVID 19.

[abqtommy]

21. You missed #1 in my original op*:

*
1. Eating the muscle tissue of a cow infected does not cause an increased risk of CJD development. It comes from eating the spinal, nervous, or brain tissues of an infected animal.

I'm getting tired of argumentative people and people who post erroneous information.

Do you want to survive COVID-19 or not?

[Ms. Toad]

22. So don't eat the spinal, nervous, or brain tissues - and you have a 100% chance of surviving CJD.

That proves my point even more (and you can even eat meat, as long as you avoid the portions that can transmit CJD). There is NO to guarantee survival of COVID.

COVID is a respiratory virus and is extremely easy to transmit from one person to another so you do not have control over whether you survive or not. CJD does not pass from person to person so you are in complete control of your own survival.

It is not a matter of **wanting** to survive COVID 19. It is a matter of ability to choose and achieve that outcome. The two diseases are completely dissimilar in transmission, so focusing on survival once you have acquired it is nonsensical.

[abqtommy]

23. Very good. I agree somewhat. Well, there are no guarantees with COVID-19 but I have read reports

of effective treatments. I think that if we plan for survival then we're likely to achieve it, so I disagree with some of your last paragraph. But we can disagree without getting personal. I'm always ready
to think outside my bubble under the right circumstances... Thank you.