What could go wrong when you shut the federal government down?
A multi-state outbreak of Salmonella is underway but, now that the source has been identified, the CDC will not be conducting an investigation that could link cases in other states to that source.
At the CDC, which operates the national foodborne-detection services FoodNet and PulseNet, scientists couldn’t work on this if they wanted to; they have been locked out of their offices, lab and emails. (At a conference I attended last week, 10 percent of the speakers did not show up because they were CDC personnel and risked being fired if they traveled even voluntarily.)
The Centers for Disease Control, which monitors the microbes that signal multi-state outbreaks of food poisoning, was working with a barebones staff because of the federal government shutdown, with all but two of the 80 staffers that normally analyze foodborne pathogens furloughed. It was not immediately clear whether the shortage affected the response to the salmonella outbreak.
78 out of 80 are furloughed.
I suppose this isn’t a problem if you can afford to hire a taster to sample all of your food ahead of time.
I jest, but keep this in mind the next time a libertarian or Republican suggests that we should abolish large swaths of the federal government. They could probably afford that liberty. The rest of us can’t.
Cook your chicken thoroughly.