Here,I’ll translate: “Waaaahh! The Trump-loving deplorables are out killing Bambi! We need something to whip up fear, to keep them out of the woods, like COVID-19 kept the proles out of the churches! CWD! Yeah, that’s the ticket! Scare ‘em that if they eat ANY ‘deer meat’, that they will get brain damage!”
Prions are serious business.
I lean toward your thinking. Taking control of the food supply being the goal.
No joke here, really. This disease has insidiously spread, untreatable especially in wild herds, and long term fatal. If susceptible animals died quickly, disease would be self limiting, but long and chronic disease has more ability to spread unnoticed.
Sadly, this is not new disease, and is not covid. Research is on going, but because of slow progression of disease, difficult to track. Also, funding for veterinary research in non-food animals is limited.
Millions wasted on covid, barely find hundred thousands for CWD. Hunters may be the salvation.