Forget COVID or influenza – nothing spreads faster than a misleading story.
Take, for example, a recent headline that’s been traveling across the internet for weeks now: “Two Hunters become first Americans to die from ZOMBIE DEER disease after eating infected venison.”
The story purportedly reports on a “scientific” (using the term loosely) investigation of two deer hunters dying from zombie deer disease, a catchy moniker for chronic wasting disease, or CWD, after eating venison from deer that may have had the disease. The authors of the above story sound the warning bell:
Experts have been warning for years that the nearly 100% fatal chronic wasting disease (CWD) – which leaves deer confused, drooling and unafraid of humans – could jump from animals to people.
But a new study theorizes that it has already happened – in two hunters who died in 2022 after eating contaminated venison.
Digging deeper into the story, the reporters highly suggest that two deer hunters contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a brain disorder that leads to dementia and death, from eating venison from deer infected with CWD. Like CJD, CWD is also a neurological disease affecting deer, elk and moose and that has no cure.
The story immediately went viral on the internet, creating grave concerns for anyone who consumes and/or handles venison. Until recently, the medical community and hunting world were secure in knowing that humans cannot get CWD. But the viral story, and others like it that soon followed, called all that into question.
With deep trepidation in my heart, I tracked down the research the stories are based upon. It comes from Neurology, a peer-reviewed neurology journal:
A quick read of just the abstract revealed there was no study conducted per se. No scientific research was performed to investigate a possible linkage between two CJD-afflicted hunters and eating CWD-tainted venison. Instead, researchers presented case studies, which detailed two men afflicted with sporadic CJD, at an annual conference. The researchers go on to state both hunters allegedly ate venison from a deer population where CWD has been found. The authors state:
In 2022, a 72-year-old man with a history of consuming meat from a CWD-infected deer population presented with rapid-onset confusion and aggression. His friend, who had also eaten venison from the same deer population, recently died from CJD, raising concerns about a potential link between CWD and human prion disease.
None of the deer killed were tested for CWD. Instead, researchers assumed that if CWD is found in a population of deer, all deer in the area must have CWD. Suffice it to say, researchers made no causal connection between hunters diagnosed with CJD and eating meat from CWD-positive deer. They do however call for more research to be conducted on whether CWD can be transmitted to humans.
In an upcoming issue of D&DH, I’ll examine in further detail this viral story and the harm it caused. I’ll also summarize new actual scientific research, done in a laboratory, that reaffirms there is a significant species barrier that prevents CWD from jumping from deer to humans. The whole ordeal stands as a shining example to be wary of eye-catching headlines and a reminder that the old adage “Don’t believe everything you read” remains truer than ever.
