Mad politician disease

It looks to us like the Canadian government has already managed its first blunder following the news that a cow in Alberta was found to have mad cow disease. Check out this picture of PM Chretien eating beef, in a step to assure Canadians and the world that beef is safe. Frankly, Chretien is a bit odd looking anyway so even on that basis we're not sure this was the right way to go about it. But more seriously, we've never understood the chain of logic we're supposed to be following here: politican eats beef therefore beef is safe? If mad cow disease does transmit to humans, the process takes years, if not decades. It's not like these guys are working as our tasters and will develop the human version of the disease instantaneously. And to everyone in Britain, a photo of a politician trying to get everyone enthusiastic about eating beef is going to recall only one thing -- the disastrous pictures of then Agriculture Minister John Gummer forcing his reluctant daughter to bite into a hamburger in 1990. His daughter wisely demurred but he chomped away. It made for dreadful footage even at the time, and we now know that there were many human cases still in the pipeline when this pathetic display was going on. The French experience has shown that the only way to convince people that beef is safe is to assure them that you can trace each piece of beef all the way back to the grassy meadow from which it came, with no weird feedstuffs entering the chain in between. Political stunts won't do it.

UPDATE: we think, but are not sure, that PM Chretien gets the idea that his eating beef is far from definitive proof that beef is safe:
"The prime minister of France will have beef today -- Canadian western beef," Mr. Chretien told reporters. "I had it yesterday and look how healthy I am this morning."