Wednesday, October 8 | 2:00 PM ET (11:00 AM PT)
Managing workplace outbreaks isn’t what it used to be. Lower vaccine coverage and shifting trust have changed the playbook, and employers need new ways to keep employees and guests safe while avoiding business interruptions.
Hear from Roslyn Stone, MPH and CEO of Zero Hour Health in conversation with Dr. Art Liang, longtime CDC leader, and Courtney Halbrook, Director of Environmental Health & Safety at TopGolf, as they discuss what outbreak response looks like in today’s atmosphere of doubt.
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/6017585478301/WN_93-64CvbSmibmetzG8q19A
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or need help, call 988 or message the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
The federal government is shut down…again. Shutdowns don’t stop foodborne pathogens, but they do sideline the federal staff who help catch them.
41% of HHS workers are set to be furloughed, including those that update the FDA’s CORE table. The FDA did say it would continue foodborne illness surveillance and response, and to issue public health advisories if there’s actionable information that could protect consumers.
State and local health departments were told that they “should expect delays in CDC’s ability to identify and respond to outbreaks.” CDC will maintain “minimal” capacity to respond to urgent threats, including food safety issues. Data reporting is one of the things that will be missed, and we can expect missing or delayed data on things like norovirus.
If this continues for a longer period of time, we can also expect it to affect local health departments, since federal funds make up a large portion of their budgets. At a time when cuts have already deeply impacted local and community health partners, this could be devastating for some of them if it drags on.
For restaurants, that means more risk gets pushed back to your team and your suppliers. It’s a good time to confirm your vendor standards, make sure managers know how to respond quickly to recalls, and double down on in-house food safety training. With fewer government guardrails in place, strong internal systems are your best defense.
Sources: Food Safety Magazine, CNN, CBS, CIDRAP
The FDA just announced that when outbreak investigations close, it will publish Executive Incident Summaries with key details on traceback, testing, and root causes, along with broader FOOD reports that track recurring pathogen-commodity pairs.
The incident reports will already be redacted to protect trade secrets, but it’s unclear if there’s a chance that these summaries will include the names of restaurants if they were involved in the investigation. The only concern we might have with these is if they put a restaurant name back on customer (or news media) radar after an outbreak has died down, or publicly release a restaurant name for the first time. Our hope is that they’ll be higher level than that, but we’ll have to wait and see from the first one after it's published.
As for the FOOD reports, these are more focused on individual foods and their history of outbreaks related to a specific pathogen. The two published reports so far are on Hep A in berries and Salmonella in tahini, and neither name any of the restaurants involved.
For restaurants, these reports could mean more visibility into supplier issues and stronger signals about which products or companies pose repeated risks. It’s not an immediate operational change, but it might raise the bar on accountability. You’ll be able to use these reports as tools - both to keep tabs on your suppliers and to defend your own food safety practices if questions come up.
Sources: Food Safety News, FDA
Heat illness isn’t just a future risk. We already have clients who have had employees that were hospitalized or even died from heat stroke already - and it doesn’t have to be the hottest day of the year. Only 7 states require paid breaks on hot days, and there’s no national rule. With OSHA’s comment period on a heat rule extended, it’s probably up to employers to make and enforce a heat policy, at least for the next few years.