LISTERIA, SALMONELLA DEMAND EQUAL TIME

Remember the stories shortly after the Mad Cow was found, saying "don't worry 'bout BSE - ordinary foodborne diseases are bigger threats!"? This is called a "false dichotomy" - it's not as though they're mutually exclusive or anything, as continued meat recalls show. In traditional Friday-recall mode, the USDA chose today to announce that the CDC is investigating an outbreak of 37 cases of salmonella linked to ground beef. And our own NBC10 reported Thursday that a local company recalling about 52,000 pounds - that's right, 26 tons - of lunch meat may have sold listeria-contaminated cold cuts to local grocery stores and delis. The meat was distributed throughout the eastern portion of the US, and "it's possible that some of that specific product code of meat was sold to our local supermarkets," said Bruce Belack, company vice president of sales at Vincent Giordano Corp. What!!?? Vince Giordano? Say it ain't so, Vince!