Lemon lime cocacola wrote:
Anyone else here in the food industry?
As someone who is, I can say that I've been forced through my career to be familiar with norovirus and the procedures that follow.
I am not the least bit surprised. This is exactly the way it's treated in every restaurant I'm familiar with, and with every health regulator.
As one such public health regulator, I will tell you my own agency would look at a a food-handler (hands effectively touching hundreds of stomachs) much differently than a track athlete (no contact with anyone necessary).
It is very likely that UK public health authorities provided the IAAF with recommendations on managing the outbreak among athletes, in particular at the Tower Hotel (apparent geographic epicenter). It is very likely that recommendations included isolating cases in terms of toileting and food. It is less likely, but not impossible, that recommendations for a suspect or even probable case would include exclusion from non-contact competition. (That would be an extremely debatable call but reasonable people might go either way.)
What has got me annoyed is the IAAF, who has a Medical Delegate with responsibility for the event, implying that it was regulation and not recommendation that led to Makwala being barred. There is no working public health official I know who would use a public health order to exclude someone from low-risk work over suspect norovirus. If anyone in the field disagrees, let's hear it.