18 State Salmonella Outbreak from Fosters Chicken Parts--UPDATE

[KoKo]

Wired notes that CDC officials couldn’t help track the current salmonella outbreak — which involves analyzing microbes in an attempt to link cases that occurred states apart — even if they wanted to. Scientists have been locked out of their offices, labs, and email accounts.

The current shutdown is already one of the largest and longest in history, and it’s also coinciding with the beginning of flu season — another one of the CDC’s multi-state tracking efforts.

UPDATE

On Tuesday afternoon, CDC officials confirmed that some furloughed staff are coming back to work to help with the salmonella outbreak. Nearly a dozen people who typically work on foodborne analysis and outbreak response are now allowed to do their jobs again. “Now that we’re into our second week, we have to consider the possibility of this being a longer-term shutdown. We’re reevaluating some of the roles,” a CDC spokeswoman explained, saying that the low staffing levels have “come to a head” in the agency’s foodborne illness department. About 9,000 of the CDC’s 13,000 workers remain furloughed.

http://www.nationofchange.org/there-s-widespread-salmonella-outbreak-public-health-officials-can-t-work-during-shutdown-1381320927

[kestrel91316]

1. The RW wants an end to any federal role in food safety. How's THAT working out for you,

you asswipes?? Do people have to DIE????

Gack. We know the answer to that..............

[obxhead]

2. K/R