Patrons of New York’s Westside Market are lined up for preventative Hepatitis A vaccines yesterday and will for the next few days.  Hopefully the vaccines do the trick and the thousands who were exposed do not get sick.  However, had that employee, who had his or her hands in you fruit, been vaccinated before, those thousands would not be standing in line to get a poke and worrying for the next few weeks if it worked or not.

OK, let’s be honest: as an attorney who makes a substantial portion of his living by filing lawsuits against restaurants, it’s not in my financial interest to have the National Restaurant Association (NRA) change its position on mandatory hepatitis-A vaccinations for food-handlers. That being said, I think the NRA’s position is largely indefensible, especially for the vast majority of independent restaurant operations who are in most cases unable to absorb outbreak-related losses from a single outlet.

The NRA’s position is for the most part based on the fact that, in 1998, the CDC waffled on its recommendations on the prevention of hepatitis-A through immunization. On the one hand, the CDC did not include food handlers among the groups of people it deemed at increased risk for hepatitis A and thus in need of prophylactic vaccinations. On the other hand, it conceded that that “persons who work as food handlers have a critical role in common-source outbreak” and that consideration should be given to whether such vaccinations are “cost-effective”. In short, the CDC left it to state and local health departments to decide what to do. Not surprisingly, most such departments have done nothing.  Here are a few restaurants who likely see if differently – now:

Continue Reading Westside Market Hepatitis A Scare – Another Chance to Think Again About Vaccinations