Holy Shit Batman!

Public health do you think keeping secret the July Seattle E. coli O157:H7 outbreak and downplaying the August Simi Valley norovirus outbreaks helped or eventually hurt Chipotle?

An official chronology of the Simi Valley, California norovirus outbreak involving Chipotle Mexican Grill customers and employees, which has been obtained by Food Safety News, shows that there were far more victims than were reported at the time.

The report reveals that the Simi Valley outbreak was larger than any of the other four outbreaks Chipotle has suffered since July, including the ongoing norovirus outbreak mostly involving Boston College students, the two E. coli outbreaks, and the Salmonella Newport outbreak in Minnesota in August. Together, these events have sickened more than 490 people.

The Simi Valley chronology was prepared by the Environmental Health Division of Ventura County’s Resource Management Agency. The first report of illness at the Chipotle Mexican Grill at 1263 Simi Town Center Way came to the agency’s executive officer by email at 9:36 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015. A man said that his daughter, one of 16 students, had dined at that Chipotle restaurant and was ill. And, the students were all sick, and one was in the hospital.

The county’s chronology includes detailed tracking of the complaints as they came in and as the illnesses were confirmed as norovirus. From that first report through Sept. 25, 2015, the chronology comes to this conclusion: ”the total number of reportedly ill customers and employees at this Chipotle outbreak investigation is 234.

Here are the public records of the California norovirus outbreak:

CHIPOTLE NOROVIRUS – CDPH records

CHIPOTLE NOROVIRUS – Ventura County EH inspection records

CHIPOTLE NOROVIRUS – Ventura County Epidemiology records

KAPOW!

Thanks Food Safety News.