Help customers maintain good infection control and social distancing by:
- Discontinuing operations, such as salad bars, buffets, and beverage service stations that require customers to use common utensils or dispensers.
- Finding ways to encourage spacing between customers while in line for service or check out in accordance with the applicable State or local requirements.
- Discouraging customers from bringing pets — except service animals — into stores or waiting areas.
This is going to have wide ranging effects across the entire country, and has already put at least two nationwide restaurant chains out of business. Garden Fresh restaurants has announced that it will be closing its 97 SouPlantation locations and its 97 Sweet Tomatoes locations as a result of the FDA's order.
- This will affect drink stations in fast food locations like Subway, McDonald's, WaWa, Racetrack, 7-eleven, and others.
- It means an end to companies like Golden Corral, Sizzler, CiCi's, along with every Chinese and Indian food buffet in the country.
- Other companies will have to change their business: PizzaHut's lunch buffet is gone, and along with it is Chevy's salsa bar, and this also kills the salad bar in every restaurant.
- Casinos will have to get rid of their buffets. (I will miss these. The buffets in Las Vegas and Biloxi are outstanding.)
- Hotels that offer free breakfast are also gone, as is the common use coffee pot.
All of this despite the fact that there is no evidence that this was a common source for COVID infections, and not one word about the New York subway system.
The order doesn't stop there. Even though there is not one shred of evidence that animals transmitted COVID, they are saying that only service animals are allowed in restaurants. If this were really being done to halt COVID, then why even allow service animals? Even arguing that animals are a health hazard and service animals are a necessary risk, there is no system in place to ensure that the animal really is a service animal.
It seems like every government agency is using the Wuhan virus to expand their reach. "Let no crisis go to waste," indeed.
Is this guidelines or new regulations, the link looks more like the former...
ReplyDeleteIt appears to me that these are new/ expanded guidelines - but most states use guidelines as a template for their orders...
ReplyDeleteNote, however, that this is the FDA, not the CDC, issuing these guidelines - I'm not sure what that means.
I'm pretty sure that the reason they don't ban service animals is that they can't - service animals are allowed under the ADA, law passed by congress, not implemented by agency rulemaking, so it can only be changed by congress.
Actually the FDA was advising shutting down all retail self service food as far back as March 17, in fact this article you linked is for the most part just bringing together of several different topics into one article and has little or nothing new in it. Not to mention the linked article was Updated on 4/21 not 5/8.
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