David Ropeik wrote in the Guardian about our irrational fears and misperception of risks. Worth reading (link). He asks: Why, if the actual risk for any given person is so low, does it feel so scary to so many?
Russia tried to ban all vegetable imports from the EU, which is a horrible idea. It is almost for sure that by this time, the contaminated batch of greens has been completely deprecated so any such measures are no more than PR stunts. Apparently, the EU convinced Russia to lift the ban (link).
Because of fear and, I must say, the lack of leadership to tackle the fear, quite a bit of unnecessary economic losses have been suffered. The EU estimates that farmers will lose $300 million.
Also, don't forget the amount of uncontaminated produce that has been laid to waste.
***
One other point: the level of risk is not the same for everyone. Most E-coli fatalities in past outbreaks have been elderly women or children with already compromised immune systems. In this case, 13 of 19 deaths were adult women, a little unusual but still a concentration of risk among a subset of the population. (link)
Just like a lot of situations, the "average" risk is not useful here. It's important to know if you are in the high-risk subgroup or not.
Comments