BMJ 1996;312:1037 (20 April)

Letters

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Scientists who inflame public anxieties must share responsibility for resulting panic

EDITOR,--Recent editorials on the danger of bovine spongiform encephalopathy causing Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans confirm that academic scientists are as much in the grip of the irrationality of the mad cow panic as is the public.1 2 Paul Brown recalls his judgment of last November that the available evidence suggested "a negligible risk to humans,"3 only to confess that "it now appears that I was wrong."1 However, he adduces no new evidence to justify this about turn, simply repeating the now familiar refrain that "no better explanation is presently forthcoming."

Being unable to advance a better explanation than that offered by a hypothesis for which there is only the weakest circumstantial backing is a dubious basis for endorsing that hypothesis. Yet, within a few sentences, Brown is raising the spectre of "a potential medical catastrophe." If an eminent scientist can . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Bovine spongiform encephalopahy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Paul Brown
BMJ 1996 312: 790-791. [Extract] [Full Text]

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