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China wants to import more beef.
“I do not get the reasoning behind this.”
First thing to check - who owns the land on the “mainland” to where the lab will sit.
If it is privately held, now, 99% chance it belongs to a Bush crony/contributor or the same for a congressman.
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Because responsibility for the lab has been transferred from the USDA to Homeland Security.
The Keystone Cops and Tiny Car Clowns in “Homeland Security” know nothing about infectious diseases, FMD in particular, and they’re more concerned about saving money by not having to ship staff/materials/etc to/from Plum Island via helo or ferry than with the net:net results.
The lab is currently located on Plum Island, which is off the northeast coast of Long Island, NY.
This is what happens when you take issues away from people know know something about the subject and give them to the idiots in “law enforcement.” They don’t want to understand the issue, they just want to know who they can arrest.
The Bush Administration ran a simulated exercise (”Crimson Sky”) to model what would be the outcome of having to perform mass livestock exterminations. The exercise resulted in the National Guard having to shoot animals, quell riots and running out of ammunition in the process.
There was, of course, no mention made of the financial outcome to farmers and ranchers in this exercise. And there’s no mention made of the costs to the US consumer, either. That’s the way with these gooberment “law enforcement” idiots. They’re just looking for who to arrest.
So if an FMD outbreak happens, stock up on ammo quickly. There’s gonna be some “civil unrest” — and not among inner city people who just whine about when the government is going to serve them a hot meal. There’s going to be some feces hitting the fan blades, because the gooberment idiots are going to find out that country folks a) own guns, b) can shoot better than the gooberment flatfoots.
Serious question. How is having a lab on the “mainland” for FNM that much, if at all different from the CDC in Atlanta housing and working with the deadliest of the deadliest viruses on planet earth? There is clearly a chance that one or more could “get out”? Shouldn’t then the CDC labs for those viruses be put on some remote island?
Ever heard of Ames Lab in Ames, Iowa? They have a lot worse stuff there than hoof and mouth. When I went to ISU, I knew a vet student who worked with Ebola on a regular basis.
She also kept a cow’s heart in a jar on her desk.