(4) Northeastern Indiana deaths caused by brain disease?

[babylonsister]

Now, if this was mad cow disease, raise your hand if you think we would be told so.

Northeastern Indiana deaths caused by brain disease?
Four northeastern Indiana residents may have died from rare disorder.

FORT WAYNE (AP) -- A rare degenerative brain disorder was suspected in the deaths of four people in northeastern Indiana during the past five months, health officials said.

Allen County Health Commissioner Deborah McMahan said the deaths were suspected to have been caused by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. After the third death, McMahan contacted the state health department and asked that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention be notified.

Northeastern Indiana's hospitals serve about 1 million people, McMahan estimated. Based on CDC figures of fewer than 300 cases a year across the country, the Fort Wayne area might expect one death from the disease a year.

Testing of brain tissue from two victims was planned as that is considered the only definitive way to determine whether a person had CJD. Health officials said the four deaths appear to be from classic CJD and not related to mad cow disease, which is linked to the rare variant CJD found in humans.

more...

[Hubert Flottz]

1. And we all know that we can't trust the government to...

tell us the truth about anything, anymore.

Bush's Cronies don't have a job if they aren't good loyal lying "Bushies"

[babylonsister]

2. (And as an added bonus) US on Mad Cow: Don't Test All Cattle

US on Mad Cow: Don't Test All Cattle

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 29, 2007
Filed at 4:20 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture (Agribusiness) Department tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.

A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it.

The ruling was to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal -- effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge plays out.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Mad-Cow.html

[jgraz]

10. Next step: no autopsies!

After all, we might get a false positive that would hurt the meat industry.

[mainegreen]

3. If you don't know the farmer who grew your food or raised your produce, you don't know your food.

Don't you want to know your food?

[babylonsister]

4. I don't even know a farmer around here, and I'm sure I'm in the majority.

So we're screwn and take what we can get.

[mainegreen]

5. It's sad that things are that way, but I have hope that it's changing. n/t

[rasputin1952]

8. When younger, my kids knew nothing of farming, ranching or

dairy. They thought milk came from cows in the back of the store and packaged right there. I used to think this was odd, but I see it all over the place today.

During the Great Depression, many people survived because they could grow a garden and make do w/little they could scrape together. I fear that if we found ourselves in the same dire straits today, many would starve for lack of knowledge in how to subsist on very little, and not be able to grow food. Planting a credit card isn't going to bring forth much fruit..:eyes:

With this nation sitting on the edge of financial collapse right now, I fear for all of us...:(

[jgraz]

12. heh -- for my last cookout in Wisconsin, our steaks had been named

We went to a neighbor's farm to buy the meat. As the mom reaches into the deep freeze, the young daughter says, "Weren't those Emily?" :yoiks:

Thanks, Emily. You were yummy.

[rasputin1952]

6. CJD is very rare, but anomalies do exist...what I fear, until

verifiable results are in, is that BSE might be the culprit here. W/the bush administration siding w/the beef industry in the lack or requirements to test beef, I fear we will see new problems in the industry as consumers of beef possibly crop up w/their brains being turned into sponges.

I side w/the beef producer who will test all of their cattle, and NOT w/those who complain about 'cost', what is the possibility of human 'cost' when one acquires this disease that can be tested, but isn't. Beef producers who fed their cattle beef byproducts in the first place, were tinkering w/nature, now they don't want to accept responsibility? Why does this sound so damn "republican"? Profit over safety, the great conservative way.

I don't hear the usual cries and calls from those who seem to think legislation against citizens is fine..."I have nothing to hide, so it doesn't affect me"...if they have nothing to "hide" of worry about in this instance, why not just test the beeves...:shrug: Methinks there is more to this than meets the eye...:(

[AngryAmish]

7. look up the Texas sharpshooter fallacy

[TexasProgresive]

9. Cryptic posts like this can earn you membership in an

exclusive club- my ignore list. Instead of showing how bright you are it highlights your deficiency of social skills.

Texas-sharpshooter fallacy

The Texas-sharpshooter fallacy is the name epidemiologists give to the clustering illusion. Politicians, lawyers and some scientists tend to isolate clusters of diseases from their context, thereby giving the illusion of a causal connection between some environmental factor and the disease. What appears to be statistically significant (i.e., not due to chance) is actually expected by the laws of chance.

http://skepdic.com/texas.html

[mopinko]

11. as the late great arthur c clarke liked to say-

the laws of random probability not only allow for coincidence, they compel it.

[JitterbugPerfume]

13. OH GEEZ!!

I live in Northeastern Indiana

Right now I am very glad not to be a meat eater > This sounds a lot like mad cow disease .

[farmboxer]

14. Kevin Trudeau has been warning us about this for a long time

I am finding that he has been correct, not only about mad cow, but the FDA and Bush!