This week Nature reported new research touted as showing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow" disease) and new-variant-Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are caused by the same agent.
Serious questions remain, though. As pointed out in the accompanying commentary by Jeffrey Almond of the University of Reading and John Pattison of University College London, "[The new studies] don't even prove that people contract [new-variant-CJD] by eating beef."
But despite these serious questions, Nature editors are ready for a witchhunt. They wrote,
But if the scientific answer to the question "can BSE cause CJD?" now appears to have been answered, many political questions are still unresolved. How did the government and its advisers react to the initial news of a possible new type of disease spreading through British herds? Was the appropriate balance struck between the need to warn consumers and a concern not to undermine a multibillion pound cattle industry? And were official actions in any way to blame for the 20 new-variant-CJD deaths that have occurred so farşan issue of critical importance to the relatives of those who have died, in their fight to recover the costs of providing medical treatment?Perhaps science should be allowed to solve the mad cow mystery before we burn people at the stake?
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