Texas Again Leads the Way

Once again the state of Texas is leading the way, and has the dubious honor of having the largest number of food poisoning cases due to salmonella-laced tomatoes.

It’s either that or Texas has, by far, the greatest per capita occurrence of people who worry about their health to the nth degree.

And considering the high concentration of care-giving institutions in Texas, you have to wonder about that.

The facts and figures that leads me to this odd conclusion are these and found here in the Dallas Morning News:

“And Texas is clearly its center, with a doubling of known cases from 131 confirmed earlier in the week to 265 as of Friday.”

“‘These 552 may actually represent several thousand illnesses in the United States,’ cautioned Dr. Ian Williams of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

“Previous research shows that for every case of salmonella reported to the government, 30 or more people get sick but don’t see a doctor or undergo confirmatory testing, he noted.”

So there you have it. Texas is either in the eye of the hurricane which is the great tomato/Salmonella outbreak of 2008, or it just seems to contain more people disposed to visit his or her doctor whenever they get the squitters.

Quite frankly, which one is true doesn’t concern me very much. Not at all. I for one haven’t eaten a tomato that hasn’t been fried, boiled or broiled in some way for a month now and it is starting to annoy.

Forget the price of gas. Ignore the cost of milk and bread. I want my choice in a presidential candidate to promise to put the T back in my BLT.