It’s January, 2002. Do you know what your government is doing?
A concerned rabbit caretaker called APHIS’s Emergency Management team today and learned that the investigation was closed. No source was determined according to that office.The caretaker was asked if she was from the media. It was explained to her, by Dr. Aida Boghossian, that if so, she would have to speak with someone from their spin department, of course not in those words. After our update, we wonder if Emergency Management staff will ever be allowed to speak to the public in the future regarding RHD.
After being told the investigation was closed, the caretaker was instructed to practice bio-security measures. She asked if the source was rabbit meat, explaining she was concerned of widespread presence of the virus. She was told that there were no cases reported, across the globe, of human infection. The caretaker again explained that she was concerned about contact for the sake of her rabbit’s health. She once again explained her concerns, with more thoroughness. The caretaker said she was more concerned that her rabbits may be exposed through contact with her neighbor’s children who ate rabbit meat and occasionally pet her rabbits. She informed Dr. Boghossian that she had no control over the children. Dr. Boghossian did not hear that part of the equation, the lack of control over the children, keeping one’s mind focused on the smoke and mirrors speech is probably difficult. The good doctor repeated the line, "have the children wash their hands."
We would bet money that when asked why they were not able to investigate in a manner that would have determined the source, we will hear scientific jargon that will be easy to decipher into meaningless smoke. We will then be given the "not enough money" speech.
We would ask how much it would have cost to send out an Emergency Management Warning email as they have done in the past notifying the public of the end to the investigation. Such does cost the price of manpower involved in writing, point and clicking. Though we hate to upset these public servants, the ones that work for us in our government for and by the people, it is going to cost a lot more to keep the smoke in place. We suspect the lack of notice of the closed status was motivated by the desire to avoid the perpetual hitting the perpetual.
Why this motivtion? Please remember, Dr. John Huse of the New York State Vet’s Office told the Coalition in a phone conversation that the source may have been infected rabbit meat. The facility where the outbreak occurred was a zoo with carnivores. Those caring for the carnivores may have handled infected meat and then cared for rabbits. This means that RHD could be in a U.S. rabbitry. Zoo’s feed their animals food fit for human consumption. If the meat was imported, we may not have a rabbitry in the US infected. We could have infected meat sitting in our supermarkets.
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--Silver To All From Watership Down, by Richard Adams ©1972
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