Scant Data Cause Widespread Concern

摘要

Perhaps there was no way the British government could have avoided setting off a public panic last week, when it announced that 10 cases of a fatal human neurodegenerative disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) may be linked to a similar disorder that has felled thousands of head of cattle in Britain. The government's press release contained scant detail of the scientific data behind the announcement--which are not yet published--but emphasizes that no link has been proven. Tomany of the British public, however, who had heard 1Q years of official assurances, the news represented an abrupt about-face: "Can We Still Trust Them?" ran next morning's headline in the 21 March Daily Express.