Scarier than Godzilla

Mad Cow Disease. Yep, folks, in case you haven't heard, we've got Mad Cow Disease, right here in River City. The government is trying to calm our fears by telling us that it's only one cow, and that the tainted feed probably came from Canada. (South Park had it right, I guess: when in doubt Blame Canada!) While I have been racking my brain trying to remember the last time I ate a hamburger, I have also been studiously avoiding either reading about this or eating red meat. As a former vegetarian I'm already neurotic about meat... I usually wash my hands at least 27 times with antibacterial soap if I'm making chicken for dinner. But, perusing the New York Times's Week In Review, I was drawn to the article, Probability, Luck and One Mad Cow. Well, let's just say it will be a long time before I'll be eating a hamburger. According to the article, the lone cow was probably infected four and a half years ago. So, we didn't anybody now about it? Because, this article argues, the Agriculture Department's testing is seriously flawed. The fact that this lone cow's brain was even sent for testing at all was a fluke. The cow was a "downer" cow, one that can't walk. "Though the inability to walk can be a sympton of mad cow disease, in this case it was attributed to her having ruptured while giving birth. In the end it was not clear why the animal's brain was sent to departmen't lab in Ames, Iowa." Although last year European countries tested 10 million animals for the disease, the U.S. only tested 20,526. This is a vast improvement from five years ago when it only tested 219. Just as shocking, "the cow's brain arrived in Ames on Dec. 11, but was not tested until Monday, and tested again on Tuesday. As of Friday, the department couldn't say how much of its meat had been sold and eaten." Want fries with that?

So, now that we've all got 20/20 hindsight, can we agree that maybe, just maybe, it would have made sense, even economically speaking, to have better regulation and testing in the first place than face the crisis looming ahead? Is this really good for the economy? I, for one, will not be running out and buying any cattle futures or stock in McDonald's. And, if this lone cow contracted the disease from tainted feed, do we really believe that there's only one Mad Cow?