Letter: BSE research
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Last Thursday's Dispatches report on Channel 4 showed how scientists dealing with BSE tried to publish the data that they found but it was kept hidden by higher decisions.
At the time I was one of the few "outside" people who knew enough of the subject to enable them to tell me in private what was happening, and I am now worried that they will be used as the scapegoats.
I knew that Ministry of Agriculture announcements to the public were misleading, and that the truth was much more severe than what seemed to be getting through to the House of Commons. I cannot see how the civil servants involved would admit those decisions to any inquiry without subpoenas, and without that, it would seem that it was the scientists who did not carry out the necessary research.
Of course they knew in 1989 that BSE was not the same as scrapie, that it would infect different animals, that we ate large amounts of bovine brain, that a major risk had been taken, and we were doing no research into methods of treatment or diagnosis.
This must not happen again and we must find out how it came about.
Dr STEPHEN DEALLER
Consultant Microbiologist
Burnley General Hospital
Burnley, Lancashire
The writer is secretary of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Research Campaign
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments