LAS VEGAS, Nev.—Everyone’s in an uproar over the woman in Las Vegas who died last year after eating raw cookie dough…four years prior.
Linda Rivera and her son, from marlerblog.com
The E. coli strain in question: E. coli O157:H7
What was it that killed Linda Rivera, 58, after she ate some prepackaged cookie dough in 2009? It wasn’t the cookie dough, obviously; she’d have died in 2009. No, instead, it was the stuff that was IN the prepackaged cookie dough, and what it ultimately did to her system, that killed her: bacterial E. coli O157:H7, a particularly nasty strain that was discovered to have been in the package along with the cookie dough. The E. coli ravaged Rivera’s system, first attacking her kidneys, then her liver, the other systems until finally, a year ago this past summer, she succumbed to the ongoing damage found in the bacteria, which apparently no allopathic doctor was able to restrain from doing its thing in her body. E. coli O157:H7 is generally found in bovine intestines…a nice way of saying that cows shit it out. In fact, most strains of E. coli are found in intestines. It’s a fecal matter bacteria…and humans can carry it. And if those humans aren’t the most sanitary of individuals, they’re going to pass it along to someone else, whether it be by a casual handshake or more excessive contact or maybe, just maybe, by touching food that gets prepackaged up and passed on to the consumer.
At least, she’s wearing gloves…
So despite all the headlines that are coming out of Rivera’s son’s memoirs that are now making the rounds on internet news sites, raw cookie dough doesn’t kill you. Intestinal (fecal) bacteria can. And it’s too bad that no one is pointing out the obvious: Much of our prepackaged food these days is put there by those who are bacteria-carrying, generally asymptomatic, and not even supposed to be on the assembly line: Illegals. We know this to be the case even locally: A few years back, we interviewed a USDA meat inspector in one of our counties, who said he was quitting after decades on the job because of the horrific conditions in tri-state slaughterhouses and meat packing facilities brought on by the mass hiring and placement of illegals in the most basic of jobs, preparing our food for us. He knew it to be the case that these were illegals, and not just “migrant workers” (like Scates in Gallatin County likes to have them termed), because these packing facilities were frequently the site of raids and mass roundups. And to think that all the “migrant workers” in downstate Illinois and Indiana, as well as western Kentucky, are just “here legally on work VISAs” is the height of naiveté. The majority might be non-citizens here on appropriate VISAs…but there are PLENTY here undocumented, fading in with the rest who may have (MAY have, mind you) gone through proper channels and actually had some kind of medical clearance.
But medical clearances won’t take care of everything. These people have substandard hygiene practices, and they bring that with them wherever they go, whatever they do. The meat-packing inspector expressed that to us. He told us of all kinds of horrific situations wherein the packers were careless with hygiene in all aspects of their time on the job. And that, folks, is where E. coli comes from. It’s in the gut of humans as well as animals. And from the gut to the excretion to the hands to whatever those hands are handling, THAT’s how it’s getting into our food.
Clean hands.
So if you’re sad about Linda Rivera’s death, get angry at our legislators. They have allowed and actually encouraged this mess. It rears its ugly head once in awhile, and it has devastating results when it does. Because cookie dough doesn’t kill you if you make it at home…I should know. I’m still here to tell you about it. It’s not raw eggs (salmonella comes from chicken POOP on the eggshell, which goes back to safe handling); it’s not even “unsanitary conditions” on the food production assembly line…it’s the people who put it there, and what they’re bringing to our country, that’s doing it.
Coooookie dough for allllll!!!