Ennobled scientists

I chanced upon this Wikipedia document, which outlines the House of Lords Appointment commission. This is a body designed to make non-partisan recommendations for elevation to the upper house of the UK parliament. Other recommendations are made by the political parties.

The Wiki page lists everyone proposed for elevation to the peerage since the commission was instituted in 2001. I was struck by all the familiar names:

2001 Lord Browne

2001 Lord May

2005 Lord Turner (Member of Climate Change Committee)

2005 Lord Rees

2007 Lord Krebs (Member of Climate Change Committee)

2007 Lord Stern

By strange coincidence the chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission is Lord Jay of Ewelme, who seems to be something to do with GLOBE International. However, he was only appointed in 2008, so there is apparently no connection to the earlier appointments. 

Odd.

Comments

[BBD]

James P

The decreasing efficacy of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the human population has nothing to do with their use in livestock.

It is the direct effect of over four decades of continuous over-prescription by (often harried) GPs. The classic example is the patient presenting with a (viral) cold demanding antibiotics.

Their over-use in other areas such as in surface cleaning products is further exacerbating the problem.

Finally, bacteria have a rather alarming trick of swapping useful adaptive traits - even between different species of organism. So the efficacy of our standard antibiotic 'arsenal' is now falling. This is a serious problem. Let's not confuse the issue.

[BBD]

The CDC has concluded that antimicrobial use in food animals is the dominant source of antibiotic resistance among food-borne pathogens in the United States

This is a special case. The food-borne pathogens (eg E Coli) become resistant to antibiotics within the animal population being given those antibiotics. Then when you get food poisoning from an under-cooked burger, the antibiotics given to you in hospital fail to work.

[James P]

BBD

Same end result though, isn't it? Over-prescribe antibiotics to food animals and humans are harder to treat.

I realise there's more to it than that, as you have indicated - I was simply defending what I believed to be true about the role of intensive farming.

[BBD]

James

You linked it to MRSA in hospitals, which is a no-no.

I take your point, but you have effectively combined two separate problems in a misleading way. I'm sure this was not intentional, but as we know, here in the spotlight, the facts have to be straight. Unless your name is Hengist, of course...

[James P]

Correlation, not causation, then - I should be alive to that on here! Thanks for the guidance.

[James P]

..although I did find this on the Wiki entry for MRSA:

"One possible contribution to the increased spread of MRSA infections comes from the use of antibiotics in intensive pig farming. A 2008 study in Canada found MRSA in 10% of tested pork chops and ground pork; a U.S. study in the same year found MRSA in the noses of 70% of the tested farm pigs and in 45% of the tested pig farm workers.[62] There have also been anecdotal reports of increased MRSA infection rates in rural communities with pig farms"

Pigs aren't chickens, I accept.