Since 1996, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was assessed as a possible human transmissible disease, a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), French people have entered into a long period of fear and avoidance of beef and bovine byproducts, which produced an unprecedented...

A survey including 1358 French general practitioners was conducted in December 1999, to assess their own perception of the risks related to the millennium bug. Neither fear nor anxious behaviour was reported. Eighty-three per cent (558/671) didn't think that health risks were to be feared, as...