In State-ly Fashion

Last week, whilst escaping the Vegas heat and my daughter's horrifying shopping spree, I lounged in the cool hotel room and grooved to a movie I'd seen many times before, 'The China Syndrome', starring Jack Lemmon. In it, Lemmon portrays a nuclear power plant worker that sees flaws in the system, tries to report the problems, and ends up taking over the plant by force to raise awareness and being shot & killed for his efforts.

I was thinking about this 'one man against the world' scenario when I read the fascinating article in last Thursday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune of how investigators from the Minnesota Department of Health, in true Agatha Christie fashion, got the focus shifted in the salmonella outbreak from tomatoes to jalapenos. The group is aptly named "Team Diarrhea":

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/25837094.html?location_refer=Most%20Emailed:President

Curiously, this clarifying article has also raised more questions. Add to the intrigue a name that has cropped up in the media repeatedly during the outbreak, Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, who reportedly is set to testify at the House hearings this week.

Let's reconstruct the timeline from a critical point & proceed from there:

Before June 23: The state of Minnesota has had only 2 salmonella saintpaul cases, both came from people who traveled to other states.

June 23: Two cases are discovered, thought at this time to be from tomatoes.

June 24: Dr. Michael Osterholm's interview with Jim Prevor is published in Prevor's Perishable Pundit, in which Dr. Osterholm repeatedly & harshly questions FDA's methodology. We assume that the actual interview took place sometime before the 24th.

Between June 23-29: Seven more cases discovered in Minnesota, and on the 29th two of those victims named the same Twin Cities restaurant as a place they dined. Key here was the fact that the restaurateur said they had dumped all tomatoes weeks before, during 'the siege', as it will now be known to all tomato historians. And that's when 'Team D' focused on a jalapeno garnish served at the restaurant.

June 30: The Team began their own traceback, with the muscle of the State Ag Department, and probably Dr. Osterholm as well, at least in an advisory capacity. By July 2, their tracking led them to jalapeno farms in Mexico.

July 3: FDA and CDC were notified by the state of Minnesota of their findings, and were called again on July 9.

July 11: Jalapeno pepper collected in Texas for examination.

July 17: Press conference with Acheson (FDA) and Tauxe (CDC). In the transcript, Acheson states "...So, we stand behind that science that set us on the tomato track to begin with. The important thing is that it changes. It evolves. And we have to evolve with it." And, in response to a pointed remark, "...hindsight is really good at trying to figure things out. At the time, that was the best information that we had. There are certainly scenarios whereby it could have been both (tomatoes & jalapenos)".

Even with what appears to be the smoking gun, neither agency will come out and clear tomatoes, even today. Sure, they'll say that all tomatoes presently in the pipeline are fine, but they still will not admit that their screwed-up methodology allowed them to bark up the wrong tree in the first place.

Also interesting is the timing of Dr. Osterholm's interview with Jim Prevor. I'm dying to know what this guy, who may very well be the sharpest knife in the drawer of all the witnesses that will testify this week, knew at the time of his conversation with da Pundit. My guess is he couldn't reveal much of what his experience suspected.

Next up, the bright lights of the Guvment. What station is this TV show gonna be on, anyway?

Later,

Jay