In a startling little sideline the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) has demonstrated why a mandatory tracking system is not necessary for disease detectives. Likewise this demonstrates how the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is also not necessary.
As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time - the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.
With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.
Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket chains compile. “It was really exciting. It was a break in the investigation for sure,” CDC epidemiologist Casey Barton Behravesh said. At least 245 people in 44 states have been sickened in the outbreak. That includes 30 in California, 19 in Illinois, 18 in New York and 17 in Washington state.
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So the CDC asked supermarkets for certain buying information on seven victims in Washington state, focusing on suspect products rather than everything the customers had bought, Behravesh said. “We didn’t care about the brand of toilet paper people were buying,” she said.Of those seven people, five had bought Italian meats made by the Rhode Island company, Danielle International Inc., Behravesh said. Further investigation - including the use of data from other victims’ shopper cards - pointed to salami made by Danielle and, more specifically, the imported pepper it was coated in. That came from two spice suppliers in New York and New Jersey. All three companies have since recalled some products.
The CDC would not say how many patients gave access to their accounts or were asked to do so, but Behravesh said most agreed. “Most of the time when a person gets really sick with a food-borne pathogen, they’re very happy to talk with us and try to help out with the investigation,” she said.
-APNews
The fact that the CDC was able to so quickly and successfully use the voluntary consumer shopping cards of just the consumers who agreed to release their own data to track down the salmonella contaminated pepper is proof that we do not need mandatory tracking systems. People should have the fundamental freedom to opt-in or opt-out of any of these sorts of programs at their discretion. Their data should only be used with their permission.
Thank you for your informative posts. I have unsubscribed from other so-called NAIS and related forums because they got so far off track. I appreciate your work.
Comment Michelle Parks — March 10, 2010 @ 5:23 pm
I agree Michelle that this website is first and foremost in informing us on NAIS related news but I am sure Walter Jeffries would agree with me that we and the other anti-NAIS sites are all in this together and we all help keep eachother informed as we watchdog the pooers-that-be that would take away our freedoms. Like a spider web, NAIS is intermingles with so many other freedom-limiting legislations.
Comment Esbee — March 10, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
This is to funny, I thought of this the other day and why they were not using the cards to track for recalls.
Comment gisela — March 10, 2010 @ 10:40 pm
Thanks for the info on pepper. I did not realise that pepper could cause a problem. This article was very interesting and keep up the good work.
Comment Mary Ann DeLong — March 11, 2010 @ 6:29 am
AH yes I do not use checks, credit cards. I do use those discount cards but it is in a deceased persons name and not at my address.
Do people even realize how much information is gathered on them everyday?
Comment anonymous — March 11, 2010 @ 7:59 am