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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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 Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:01 am Post subject: Demystifying the Mad Cow madness |
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The facts about "Mad Cow Disease" or BSE, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or CJD, and the newer form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or vCJD, are readily available through the internet if you know how to search for them.
In a search engine such as Google, type the disease you are interested in, the country you are interested in getting statistics on, and either the word "incidence" or "epidemiology."
The government agencies that provide information and statistics on diseases and other health issues in the United States are the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, or CDC, and the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for protecting the food supply, and they also have information. So you can also find information by adding these agencies to your search query.
Here are their websites:
http://www.cdc.gov/
http://www.nih.gov/
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome
Another source is PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/
Here you can search for scientific journal articles on any health related subject. You can retrieve an abstract of the article for free, but you may have to pay a fee to get the full article.
I should add that a journalist can get information and comments directly from the CDC or NIH, and ask any tough questions they like, just by contacting them:
http://www.cdc.gov/media/
http://www.nih.gov/news/media_contacts.htm
While it is common to see comments in news articles from these agencies on topical stories, such as the salmonella outbreak, I have yet to see any news stories about the Korean Mad Cow controversy where the reporter has contacted either the NIH or CDC for comment on Mad Cow Disease or vCJD. And this goes for both Korean media and international media. Why is this? There is a a lot of astonishing nonsense being spread around Korea about the risks from American beef. (It's hard to top the "American Beef Makes Me Horny T-shirts" Korean women protesters are wearing.) Why are no reporters covering this and doing a reality check with the facts? Reporters, if you are reading this, why not call them up, or e-mail them for comments? Trust me, they will talk to you.
So what do we learn if we do a little searching?
There have been only three cases of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) found in the United States, and one of these was a cow born in Canada. This is out of around 1 million cows tested, and a population of about 48 million cows in the United States. Only two American cows have been found with Mad Cow Disease. The initial Korean ban on American beef came in 2003, after the first cow was found in the United States with Mad Cow Disease, but was in fact a cow brought in from Canada.
Specifically, 735,213 cattle were sampled in the seven years prior to March 17, 2006, and two American cows and one cow from Canada (in 2003) were found to be infected with BSE:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/hot_issues/bse/downloads/BSEprev-estFINAL_7-20-06.pdf
Altogether, 15 cows in North America (Canada and the U.S.) have been found to have BSE, so that adds up to 12 Canadian cows, two American cows and one cow born in Canada but identified in the U.S.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/images/BSE_chart.gif
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/
Compare that to the number of cases in Europe, and specifically the United Kingdom:
| Quote: |
"The BSE epidemic in the United Kingdom peaked in January 1993 at almost 1,000 new cases per week. Through the end of 2007, more than 184,500 cases of BSE had been confirmed in the United Kingdom alone in more than 35,000 herds." |
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/bse/
While there is a small spelling difference between the United Kingdom and the United States, there is a big geographic difference between the United Kingdom and the United States. They are separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Prions, which are believed to be the agents for transmitting BSE, presumably are not able to travel thousands of miles across the ocean by themselves. There has been a Mad Cow outbreak in the United Kingdom. There has NOT been any Mad Cow outbreak in the United States.
Some people have claimed a connection between CJD and BSE. There is no known connection. About 1 person in a million gets CJD, in the United States and every other country in the world.
Look at the right side of this graph:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cjd/images/cjd7905_annual-rate-slide.png
This shows the rate of CJD in the United States per 1 million people - it is about 1 person per million. The left side shows the total number in the United States, but keep in mind the U.S. has a population of about 300 million people. There has been no significant change in the rate since the United Kingdom BSE outbreak.
About 15 percent of CJD cases appear to have a hereditary component. Aside from that, CJD seems to a disease that arises in humans spontaneously, without any known external cause. It is easy to distinguish from the far more common Alzheimer's disease through testing and symptoms.
The disease that some theorize may be caused by BSE is called vCJD. The CDC says there is evidence for a causal relation:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/
While several cases of vCJD have been found in the United Kingdom, only three have been found in the United States. And all three of them appear to have been contracted outside the United States.
"Three cases of vCJD have been reported from the United States. By convention, variant CJD cases are ascribed to the country of initial symptom onset, regardless of where the exposure occurred. There is strong evidence that suggests that two of the three cases were exposed to the BSE agent in the United Kingdom and that the third was exposed while living in Saudi Arabia."
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/factsheet_nvcjd.htm
There is NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE of any outbreak of mad cow disease, or human infections related to mad cow disease, in the United States.
Yet if you ask a Korean to guess how many cows in the United States are infected with mad cow disease, or how many people are infected with CJD or vCJD, they will often estimate anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent.
Clearly, Koreans are misinformed on these issues.
And they clearly do not understand how mad cow disease is transmitted from cow to cow or from cow to humans.
Why is there no mad cow disease in the United States? Because the U.S. took steps more than 10 years ago to prevent BSE, before any outbreak occurred:
| Quote: |
"To prevent BSE from entering the United States, severe restrictions were placed on the importation of live ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats, and certain ruminant products from countries where BSE was known to exist. These restrictions were later extended to include importation of ruminants and certain ruminant products from all European countries.
"Because the use of ruminant tissue in ruminant feed was probably a necessary factor responsible for the BSE outbreak in the United Kingdom and because of the current evidence for possible transmission of BSE to humans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration instituted a ruminant feed ban in June 1997 that became fully effective as of October 1997." |
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/factsheet_nvcjd.htm
Because these steps were taken in 1997, an American cow would theoretically have to be more than 11 years old to be at any risk of having BSE. Therefore, Korea's concern about American cows being less than 30 months old is irrelevant. I don't think cattlemen normally raise cows that long if intended for sale and slaughter for beef.
What are your risks of contracting vCJD from eating American beef? Pretty low. Take any rare event, such as being struck by lightning or winning the lottery, and your odds would be much higher.
Here is what the NIH estimates is the risk for travelers visiting the United Kingdom, where there actually have been cattle found with BSE:
| Quote: |
"Risk for Travelers
The current risk of acquiring vCJD from eating beef (muscle meat) and beef products produced from cattle in countries with at least a possibly increased risk of BSE cannot be determined precisely. If public health measures are being well implemented the current risk of acquiring vCJD from eating beef and beef products from these countries appears to be extremely small, although probably not zero. A rough estimate of this risk for the UK in the recent past, for example, was about 1 case per 10 billion servings." |
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/risk_travelers.htm
So, if you have a 1 in 10 billion chance of getting vCJD from eating a serving of beef, in the United Kingdom, what would the odds be for eating beef from the United States? 1 in 1 quadrillion? It is probably not zero because, like CJD, there may be a possibility that mad cow disease can arise spontaneously in cows. But then that risk would exist in Korean cows, too, as well as Australian cows. The risk of a human getting ill from cooked beef are still extremely low. The risk goes up if you eat the cow's brain. So don't eat cow's brains, especially raw.
How many more common food borne illnesses exist in Korea? How many people are killed or hospitalized from them each year? And, while we're at it, why are Koreans afraid to drink tap water?
So why are Koreans, including little children less than 10 years old and sometimes less than 5, marching and chanting slogans against the United States and Mad Cow Disease?
(I hope there are no mistakes or typos in this posting. I apologize if there are. Please point out any factual errors or typos. But I wanted to get this posted today. I am sick of remaining silent.)
Last edited by Gatsby on Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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elliemk
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Location: Sparkling Korea!
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:40 am Post subject: |
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Fascinating and confirms what I have known all along. Koreans believe the media here. They also believe what other Koreans tell them.
Example: my students in my advanced class said that pollution here was caused by Koreans using shampoo. Where did they get this? From their teachers. Go figure. I assigned them an essay on pollution in Korea, and they all came back with, "Korean pollution is caused by waste water from factories and other causes." Amazing.
Thanks for a great post. |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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It's true! All of the things you have heard are true! I can see I couldn't pull the wool over the eyes of you Davizens.
There really is Mad Kow Disease in the United States, and it's rampant. More than half the kows are infected with this insidious disease.
And more than a third of Americans are dying from Mad Kow Disease. Streets are empty, houses unsold, school desks gathering dust. That's why the government has added an aphrodisiac to beef, to help repopulate the country. Only it's working a little too well. American women aren't just horny from eating American beef, they are ravenous for sex.
Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex --- I can't take it anymore! I was exhausted by the unceasing demands of American women to copulate three, four, five times a day. That's why I came to Korea, to live among women who are chaste. And to eat kimchi to recharge my precious bodily fluids.
But now the United States is trying to send its tainted, poisonous beef to the gentle, peace loving, civilized country of Korea. You're next, baby! And since, as everyone knows, Koreans are genetically super-sensitive to scourage of Mad Kow Disease -- we can already see the madness setting in from the earlier shipments -- once American beef imports resume, Koreans will be dropping like flies.
This depopulation is exactly what the evil, hateful people of the United States want. They want to take over the bountiful natural resources of South Korea, especially its kimchi mines, and use the countryside to raise healthy kows to feed Americans. If Korea's leaders give in South Korea will be little more than one big kow pasture for the United States.
All the statistics cited in the first post are complete fabrications to conceal the dreadful truth. It is a vast conspiracy perpetrated with the full knowledge and cooperation of the CIA, NSA, CDC, NIH, FDA, USDA, WHO, UN, and every county Cooperative Extension Agent in the United States. Even though they can see the kows and people dying in front of their eyes, they have united with one goal: to deceive the Korean public. Even the reporters and editors at the thousands of newspapers and hundreds of television stations in the United States have signed on to this deception. Why are they doing it? Patriotism. Deception in the name of patriotism is no vice.
Korea, don't start on the slippery slope to disease, perversion and moral turpitude. Sure, a hamburger made with American beef may seem harmless enough. They even want to feed them to little children! Can you believe it! Trying to pervert the minds of babies into thinking that there is actually something good about the United States of America. Why, the Chinese will not stand for it! (And aren't they the ones who are really running this show?) First, a hamburger, but then, what's next? The United States will be exporting it's marijuana to Korea and feeding it to little Korean babies, getting them hooked, and turning them into zombies of the West for life. And after that? Opium smoked in opium dens?
Korea, you have been warned! So continue your protest marches. Tear apart every bus in Seoul if necessary to get your message apart. The world is watching.
Last edited by Gatsby on Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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seirogan
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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| you are aware that "makes me horny" t-shirt was a photoshop joke...aren't you? |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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seirogan wrote:
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| you are aware that "makes me horny" t-shirt was a photoshop joke...aren't you? |
It's a lie!
It's a lie!
It's a lie!
It's a lie!
IT'S A LIE!!!!!!!!
I refuse to believe it.
(Korean logic -- one half of an actual conversation about Mad Kow Disease.) |
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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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OK, listen up, gang!
Here's the plan:
Everybody just write two words on the blackboard:
"Two cows"
That's it.
If a kid says "mad cow, mad cow" to you, just hold up two fingers and say "two cows. two cows."
If someone asks you why you have "two cows" written on the blackboard, tell them: "That's the number of American cows that have been found with mad cow disease -- two cows."
If you want to get fancy, you could also write "48 million cows." That's the number of cows in America. It is also about the number of people in Korea. Poetic, isn't it?
Don't bother arguing with them. Just hold up two fingers and shrug. If you see some mad cow protesters, just hold up two fingers as they walk by, you know, the V for victory fingers. Tell expats: Two cows, pass it on. And from now on, when a Korean says hello to me, I am going to hold up two fingers.
A Korean teacher said Korean students couldn't understand an explanation of the mad cow truth, that it was too complicated.
What do you think? |
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