Lawmakers in West Virginia got pretty sick in the days after passing a bill to legalize raw milk — and now some are wondering if there is a relation between the two events. According to an anonymous complaint made to the Department of Health and Human Resources, the lawmakers came down with their illness after drinking raw milk to celebrate the bill's passing, WSAZ reports:
[Pat] McGeehan and some other lawmakers drank raw, unpasteurized, milk to celebrate the passing of a bill that makes it legal before getting sick.Several lawmakers say a delegate who sponsored the bill, Scott Cadle (R-Mason, 13), brought in the drinks."[Cadle] caught me in the hallway, offered a cup to me, and you want to try to be a gentleman," McGeehan said. "I had a small sip and walked away and tossed the rest of it.""I highly doubt raw milk had anything to do with [the sickness], in my case," McGeehan said. [WSAZ]
However, the CDC warns that "unpasteurized milk is 150 times more likely to cause foodborne illness and results in 13 times more hospitalizations than illnesses involving pasteurized dairy products." McGeehan nevertheless insists that there is a stomach bug making the rounds and the timing of his illness is entirely coincidental. Decide for yourself, and watch below. Jeva Lange
The Week
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