At 01:31 AM 10/21/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>Exposure is not the only determinant of whether people become ill from
>eating contaminated food.  The person's immune status and levels of stomach
>acid production are key determinants.  The young, elderly, and sick will
>always be more susceptible to illness.  As an example, you often hear of
>outbreaks in nursing homes leading to high rates of morbidity (illness) as
>well as a higher rates of mortality (death) than the rest of the population.
>
>Rob

        Though the immune system(really an extention of the nervous
system to
sense the internal environment) and level of stomach acid production
are
important I also believe that the environment is even more important
as
"germs" require a very specific environment in which to flourish.
Cooked
meat and raw meat provide very different environments. This is one of
the
reasons I think vaccines are very ineffective. The environment is not
one
that a real pathogen would encounter in the real world.
        I can't help to think about bears, vultures, and our very
early ancestors
and how they ate or eat very spoiled meat on a regular basis without
food
poisoning even on their first exposure. Give cooked meat to the same
animal
and you've got a problem. I have never gotten sick from eating raw
meat,
but rather from cooked meat form restaurants. Even meat cooked beyond
a
very slight outer level seems like eating shoe leather.

Dave