Boston College has reported 120 students infected with norovirus, believed to be traced to one Chipotle employee who came to work sick.
If you’ve never had norovirus, count yourself lucky. It’s a painful gastro-intestinal illness that results in vomiting, diarrhea, and cramping. I had it once and was pretty much chained to the toilet for almost a week. It’s a pretty common virus, so common that practically every year a cruiseship is a hellhole of digestive distress due to norovirus.
The key phrase in the linked article?
an employee had come to work ill on Thursday
Because fast-food (and most restaurant) employees know that taking time off can result in termination, even if they’re ill. Because there is no paid sick time off for these workers, and a few days off sick can mean they can’t pay the rent.
Sure, other measures such as keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold, employees washing their hands, and other common-sense sanitary measures will help prevent spread of infection. But as long as employees are given a “suck it up and come to work” message from employers backed up with punitive measures for taking time off when ill, eating at restaurants will be risky.
This type of outbreak is fairly rare, but not because we have best practice management in restaurants, but rather because we’re lucky. Without adequate worker protection, it seems inevitable that such outbreaks will continue.