If you ever shake Thom Tillis’ hand, we suggest having sanitizer nearby.
Tillis, the newly minted U.S. senator from North Carolina, has taken the bold stance that restaurants, not health departments should require restaurant workers to wash their hands after using the bathroom. Getting health departments involved in such personal decisions as to whether to infect customers is another burdensome government regulation better left to the free market.
If restaurants choose not to require this level of state-sponsored cleanliness, they should have to post signs alerting customers to that fact. The free market will then, according to Tillis, take care of it. Right after the market is released from the hospital from a nasty E. coli or norovirus infection.
So, it appears Tillis is saying that the government should regulate the posting of signs but not the washing of hands.
Food handlers with unclean hands are the most frequent source of food poisoning. In addition to E.coli, nororvirus, Hepatitis A can also be transmitted via the fecal-oral route of infection.
[pdf-1]