Originally from: Bill
                        
David,

Never saw any of his stuff but the point I am trying to make is the decisions are being made by people with paper qualifications whose sole knowledge is from reading books. Very often the books are written by other people who have only read books and never experienced the real world.

In medicine the books are very often wrong. I learned this from an early age as I was fortunate enough to be brought up at a hospital (an asylum no less) where my father worked.

No, I am not a vet but a one time medical student who eventually became a biochemist and drifted into virology via cancer and AIDS research. However my first experience of FMD was a long time ago.

A few months after dropping out of medical school (dropping out was quite commonplace in the 1960's), in November 1967, I got a job as a manager with a company working on burials and hygene in Cheshire.

The work wasn't too pleasant but there were compensations, a company Land Rover was quite a status symbol in those days.

One day a machine driver snagged the digger arm in some barbed wire and whilst trying to untangle it he fell into a pit of slaughtered cattle. He was subjected to some fairly merciless mickey taking but the mood changed a few days later when he turned up at the office with a fairly dramatic eczema of the hands, arms and around the mouth. (never thought to ask about his feet).

MAAF officials had sent him off the job having told him to take three months (months!!!) off work and keep his mouth shut about what had happened. Not knowing what to say we sent him off to the general manager's office and that was the last that was seen of him. ( He got another job during his three months enforced paid leave).

That day was a turning point in my life because until then I had never encountered deception or dishonesty. I looked up FMD in Greens (I still quote from Greens even now) and sure enough humans can become infected. The older books all say that but over the years important information slowly gets edited out.

For example the first eight editions of Radostits, the "Bible" often quoted by Pirbright, DEFRA and Lord Whitty, refer to infected humans being a vehicle for transmission of FMD. This reference is edited out of the ninth edition which is the one in current use.

Anyone, such as Richard, taking a 5 year PhD in epidemiology wouldn't know humans can spread the disease as biological carriers. People working with the disease should wear "space suits" when handling infected material. Wearing overalls with one's head poking out of the top is totally pointless. (Please refer to picture of Blair wearing yellow suit!).

Over the years I have collected a lot of FMD related stuff and offered it to MAAF early on in the epidemic. Needless to say they didn't even have the courtesy to reply!

Best wishes,
Bill.