Jim

The BSE history shows that the scientists involved in the research blindly
accepted the theory proposed in 1987 that BSE was spreading into cows in the
meat and bone meal. The conclusion of the early theory was that BSE was a form
of scrapie (a disease of sheep which they believed could not pass from one
species to another... contrary to the evidence they presented). In the 1980s it
was already well know that diseases had often jumped the species barrier.

The early BSE theory was blindly accepted and propergated as a fact with the
status of scientific truth.  But in science a fact, a theory can only ever have
the status of a theory, only those theories with a substantial amount of
empirically proven evidence can have the status of being probably true. This
theory was presented to the media and non-scientists as being the truth rather
than as being a theory and probabilistically true.

Of course the science of the time (1987) was based on the best evidence and as
such could be regarded as an acceptable position to take. But, and it is a very
large but, the statements were not challenged, investigated and tested against
evidence or alternative theories.

The great 'lie' here is the status of scientific theories as fact and truth. The
use of the status of science as truth to keep the public reassured contrary to
all the empirical evidence, the idea of scientific certainty as being possible
resulted in the public administrators (who were usually scientifically trained)
justifying the bad practices of the time and refusing to address the
probabilistic nature of scientific theories and the risks associated with the
issues.

This may relate directly to other recent statements arguing that science is
badly taught, but that is not my concern here.

Incidentally the use of science and technology to justify the turning of animals
into cannibals is so morally repugnant as to be totally unspeakable.

regards

sdv

jim clark wrote:

> Hi
>
> On Tue, 7 Nov 2000, sdv wrote:
> > The below are [snips] from Promed these emails are evidence in the
> > ongoing uncovering of the lies and evasions which science and
> > technologists have committed related to the BSE food scare. The
> > interesting thing here is that the audience who were 'lied to' by the
> > science and technologists concerned seem more capable of dealing with
> > probability than the trained scientific community.
>
> The only mention of scientists that I saw was that they
> identified the disease in 1995.  Exactly what were the lies
> referred to in the preamble?
>
> Best wishes
> Jim
>
> ============================================================================
> James M. Clark                          (204) 786-9757
> Department of Psychology                (204) 774-4134 Fax
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