The report into the histories of 51 victims of vCJD, the human version of “mad cow disease” is out, and – surprise, surprise – the was no statistical link between vCJD and eating beef. One victim was not a beef eater. The rest ate beef with the same frequency as the population as a whole. Of course, just because there was no statistical link doesn’t mean that they didn’t get the disease from eating beef. They may have just gotten unlucky. And the non-beef eater had certainly eaten something with beef broth or beef by-products without specifically being aware of it.