Foot in Mouth Disease?

I happened to catch this Howard Dean speech on C-Span yesterday.

SEE: Fmr. Gov. Howard Dean at “Caucus for Change” Rally (12/28/2003)

He vigorously criticised the Bush administration for failing to adopt UK standards that might have prevented the BSE occurrence and asserted expertise on such matters based upon his physician’s credentials and personal handling of Vermont’s scrapies crisis. In July 2000, after lengthy quarantines and court battles, two herds of Belgian sheep [A third flock of 20 sheep was sold to the government earlier.] were confiscated and euthanised after “several sheep from the flock tested positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE).”

The USDA became more aggressive when the UK had their mad cow outbreak; or did they? One reason some Vermont herders were up in arms was their assertion that scrapies and BSE are unrelated and the govt. was acting harshly. However there’s evidence to suggest that scrapies “jumped the species barrier” and its prions are the cause of BSE, so there was room for worry. Whether panic overcame individual rights unnecessarily is a difficult call. One might at least observe that when the application of such actions involves inconveniencing individuals as opposed to powerful corporations, the govt. acts with great urgency and decisiveness on matters involving the former and lopes along nearly blind to hazards incurred by the latter.

But back to Dean. The program that identified the problem in Vermont wasn’t initiated by him. When I attempted to search for articles about him and the Vermont crisis yesterday I was met with nearly no returns, in fact, only one link. Today, Google seems to be back to its usual accommodating service.

Does this sound like someone who had his shirt sleeves rolled up, applying his scientific knowledge?

I haven’t found any effort spearheaded by Dean to address the feed problem.

Excerpted from another article:

He was near the end of his term and in the planning stages of a presidential run. If he was active behind the scenes, but kept a low-profile at the time to ward off negative press, he should at least address his dishonesty then before attempting to capitalise upon these yet to be revealed actions now.

As for BSE and Veneman’s capitulation to initiating changes the Bush administration and some Democrats failed to implement.

For me the issue is, do I trust these people with my health, and the answer’s no. They prove time and again they put profits before safety. I don’t doubt many of them would willfully ignore a possible disaster by minimising its potential to harm many. There’s a mindset amongst them that the loss of a few lives doesn’t warrant a change in the way they do things.

There’s also the question of livelihood and the short-cuts some will take to preserve it.

Frances Moore Lappe’s 1971 bestseller Diet for a Small Planet alerted us to the human causes behind world hunger and the consumption of meat factored greatly in her findings.

She and her daughter Anna released a 30th anniversary sequel to it called Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet in 2002.

It would be ‘progressive’ if this recent outbreak motivated people to start talking about these issues again.

I don’t anticipate Howard Dean leading his crowds to the fray. Instead, it appears he is once again leading them astray.

He certainly delivers his performances with great charm and an engaging style. Unfortunately complete honesty doesn’t appear to have a place in his act.