afraid in dream

I had a very odd dream where people were afraid of me and I had no idea why.  My family did their best to protect me whenever I was in public.  It was as if they were my own private bodyguard system.  Then something happened.  I saw myself in a mirror and could see that my entire body was bandaged.  As to why I was not aware of this fact before seeing myself, I do not know.  This did, however, explain why people were looking so strangely at me.  Then suddenly the scene shifted and I was at a museum of some sort where there was a display of a damaged human brain.  Somehow the brain had been infected and I was told that that was had happened to me.

Once again time moved forward and the bandages fell away and I was with a group of people eating.  A family member or friend warned me not to eat what the other people were eating or I would fall victim once more to the mysterious virus.  From what I could see the food looked perfectly normal, except for the fact that all of the people were eating with toothpicks.  Then in the role of all knowing narrator and or voice over, I learned that meat had somehow been contaminated and even a small portion led to hallucinations and then paralysis.  Foolish me did not believe that this could be true so I took just a small bite and immediately felt my limbs stiffen slightly and my vision blur.

Those are the details that I remember the best.  I have no idea what triggered this bizarre dream and or what I am meant to take away from it.  I do not think that this is how mad cow disease affects people, but I could be wrong.  I found the whole experience to very weird.