Accidents Do Happen

This island nation is currently holding its breath waiting for news of the small outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease at a farm in plush Surrey (near Guildford, which is absolutely about as plush as it gets).

A leading UK virologist, the name of whom I've not yet caught, has dismissed evidence that the source of the outbreak is a nearby laboratory handling on the grounds that these things happen and pointed out that "accidents do happen".

Cheerful news. Do hope though, that they're not handling Spanish Flu or Ebola or anything really nasty and catastrophic or anything like that.

Now a conspiracy theorist would make hay of the fact that the private company operating on the laboratory site has ceased to manufacture the vaccine for the strain of F&M that has now been identified and created the link to the lab. I mean, if your a capitalist with your investment looking a bit limp what better way to give things a jump start than lay out a prima facie case for restarting the R&D and manufacture of the vaccine.

Incidentally there is another irony in this: the UK doesn't vaccinate against this viral disease but within the countries that are markets for its exports, markets that would be under threat if the national herd were to be routinely vaccinated, such vaccination is practiced. And the supplier of all the vaccine? Well, in part it is the UK.