Here’s one more story that will make you think twice before heading into a fast-food joint: Two South Carolina locations of the chain allegedly let an employee work two weeks’ worth of shifts while infected with hepatitis A. Authorities believe several thousand customers visited the Spartanburg County stores during this period, any or all of whom presumably could have consumed food or drinks touched by this individual — a serious enough situation that the state issued an emergency alert. So far, health officials have vaccinated 4,295 people who fear potential exposure.
And, as you might expect, yesterday a customer named Cody Werkmeister filed a class-action suit that theoretically could grow to include the entire legion of affected customers. Besides alleging negligence by selling “unreasonably dangerous” food prepared by somebody with a highly contagious liver infection, his lawsuit also argues Hardee’s didn’t require employees to get vaccinated against hep A and failed to inform the public “in a timely manner” that an employee had been lurking around the Thickburgers with this virus.
