Eat More Pork, Government Urges

Here is the problem with having a closed society with no transparency and no free press. Stories like this one fail to restore confidence.

A disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of pigs in China is now under control, according to Jia Youling, the Ministry of Agriculture's chief veterinary officer. Jia said initial rumours that millions of pigs died from the disease were exaggerated, and that a vaccine had been developed and distributed to stricken regions, AFP reported. He said 100 million pigs had been vaccinated, while 175,000 had been culled and 68,000 have died of the disease in China so far.

Observing the government flumbling through bad press on tainted toothpaste provides no comfort that it would handle diseased cattle skillfully.

I was told by someone well placed and familiar with Chinese operations that China had no system for addressing a pandemic or mass outbreak of any kind.