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<ul class="summary-list"><li>McDonald's Quarter Pounders have been linked to an <keyword id="22099782" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="E-coli-outbreak" source="keywords">E. coli outbreak</keyword> in several states, the CDC said.</li><li>McDonald's said it will temporarily remove the burgers from its menus in affected areas.</li></ul>A deadly E. Coli outbreak has been linked to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-tied-quarter-pounders-2024-10">McDonald's Quarter Pounder</a>. So far, one person has died, and 10 others have been hospitalized in connection with the outbreak, which impacted 49 people across 10 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. McDonald's said it believes the outbreak may be linked to the slivered onions used on its Quarter Pounder. The fast-food chain said it is temporarily taking the burger off the menu in several states. "Negative <keyword id="20000858" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="food-safety" source="keywords">food safety</keyword> news is never welcomed by restaurants operators, especially those working to improve the brand image after getting off-sides on consumer affordability in recent years," Jon Tower, an analyst at Citigroup, said in a note to clients, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-22/mcdonald-s-quarter-pounders-linked-to-e-coli-outbreak-cdc-says?srnd=homepage-americas&amp;sref=yaJhKSOh">Bloomberg</a>. Tower said McDonald's outlook depends on the company's response, which should include taking responsibility, controlling the outbreak, and overcorrecting on food safety, the outlet reported. Examining how other fast-food giants have recovered from recent health-related crises might also provide insight into how McDonald's will try to recover from the incident. <h2>How Chipotle and Wendy's came back from health-related problems</h2>Several fast-food brands have bounced back from food-safety incidents before. One of those is Chipotle, the fast-casual Mexican chain that McDonald's had a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-ridiculous-reason-mcdonalds-sold-chipotle-2015-5">90% stake in</a> until 2006. In 2015 and 2016, hundreds of customers reported becoming ill after eating at Chipotle outlets. Chipotle's stock price plummeted, and the company eventually agreed to pay a $25 million <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/press-releases/chipotle-mexican-grill-agrees-pay-25-million-fine-resolve-charges-stemming-more-1100-cases-foodborne">fine</a> to settle criminal charges related to outbreaks that impacted 1,100 people between 2015 and 2018. But less than five years later, the company and its stock price had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/business/chipotle-stock-earnings.html">recovered</a>. So what did Chipotle do? In 2016, the company <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://ir.chipotle.com/news-releases?item=122453">announced</a> a spate of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/business/every-days-a-safety-drill-as-chipotle-woos-customers-back.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fstephanie-strom">new food-safety protocols</a> — such as rinsing produce multiple times and putting stickers on food storage containers to indicate when they were sanitized — and hired James Marsden,a professor from Kansas State University, to serve as executive director of food safety. In 2017, Chipotle <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://ir.chipotle.com/news-releases?item=122384">announced</a> its founder, Steve Ells, would be stepping down as CEO in favor of someone with "demonstrated turnaround expertise." In 2018, Brian Niccol, currently the CEO of Starbucks, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://ir.chipotle.com/news-releases?item=122376">took over</a> as the CEO of Chipotle after a successful stint at the helm of Taco Bell. Niccol told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/business/chipotle-stock-earnings.html">The New York Times</a> in 2019 that Chipotle had become "an industry leader" in food safety, adding: "We're doing some really progressive things on the food safety front, and we're going to have to, because we're going to stay committed to using real ingredients." Chipotle's recovery may also have hinged on expanding the business in areas unrelated to food safety. "They are exceptional in how well the brand has capitalized on digital ordering," Sara Senatore, a Bernstein analyst who followed Chipotle, told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/business/chipotle-stock-earnings.html">the Times</a> in 2019. Wendy's dealt with a similar situation. Between July and August 2022, Wendy's restaurants were linked to an E. coli outbreak in six states, per <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/ecoli/2022/o157h7-08-22/index.html">the CDC</a>. A total of 109 people were infected, with 52 hospitalized. No deaths were reported. An investigation into the incident was unable to determine the specific food source responsible for the outbreak, but 46 people reported eating romaine lettuce served on the burgers and sandwiches before falling sick, per <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/ecoli/2022/o157h7-08-22/details.html">the CDC</a>. As a precaution, the fast-food chain removed romaine lettuce from menu items in the affected states. Despite the E. coli outbreak, the company's US sales <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://s1.q4cdn.com/202642389/files/doc_financials/2022/q3/2022-Q3-Press-Release.pdf">jumped 7.7% in the third quarter of 2022</a>, compared with the year prior. In its latest <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wendys.com/csr-what-we-value/reports">corporate responsibility report</a>, published in May, Wendy's said it was committed to continuously improving its food safety standards and operational procedures and has conducted over 12,000 Food Safety Assessments in its restaurants worldwide. <h2>What McDonald's should do</h2>The McDonald's case differs from similar incidents at other <keyword id="20697449" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fast-food-chains" source="keywords">fast-food chains</keyword> primarily due to the iconic status of the Quarter Pounder, Alexandra Leung, the founder of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://monogic.co/">Monogic</a>, an F&amp;B marketing and PR agency in Singapore and Hong Kong, told Business Insider. "As a classic menu item, any food safety issue involving the Quarter Pounder could significantly impact consumer trust and brand reputation, making it a more sensitive issue for McDonald's," she said. The Quarter Pounder is important to McDonald's menu — and to its brand more broadly. Menu "classics" like the Quarter Pounder <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-quarter-pounder-ecoli-outbreak-why-important-sales-2024-10">have made up a bulk of food sales</a> in McDonald's top markets in recent years. The company's stock price tumbled nearly 10% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, following the news. However, Leung said the company's well-established food safety management system and history of rigorous supplier audits may allow for a more effective response. The fast-food chain will also have to conduct thorough audits of its suppliers' practices, she said. In addition to removing any affected items from the menu, McDonald's should also communicate clearly with its customers throughout the process, Leung said. "Clear messaging about the steps being taken to ensure food safety is vital. This proactive approach will help reassure customers that their health is a top priority," Leung said. "Transparency is crucial in rebuilding trust with customers, as it demonstrates accountability and a commitment to their safety." October 24, 2024 — An earlier version of this story mentioned a product recall of the affected items, McDonald's has not confirmed an official recall.

How McDonald's can learn from other fast-food giants in recovering from the deadly E. coli outbreak

Artificial intelligence has its hands in nearly every industry, from chatbots to healthcare, and one of the AI world's favorite new tools is <keyword id="20280828" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="whisper" source="keywords">Whisper</keyword>, a transcription program developed by <keyword id="19918823" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="OpenAI" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="OpenAI" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="OpenAI">OpenAI</keyword>. Whisper’s main selling point is that it supposedly delivers near “human-level robustness and accuracy,” as the company claims. But there’s a major catch — Whisper has a habit of “hallucinating.” If you’re picturing an AI tool hallucinating psychedelic visuals, it’s not quite like that. Hallucinations in AI transcriptions mean the tool has a tendency to make up words, phrases, and even entire sentences. Whisper has been known to slip in racial commentary, violent ideas, or medical jargon that no one actually said. And when used in sensitive settings like hospitals, these “creative” additions can be more than an oddity — they could be downright dangerous. <h2>The hospital risk factor</h2>Several developers and researchers have found these hallucinations are worryingly frequent. In hospitals, transcription software like Whisper is being trialed to record patient-doctor conversations. It seems like a great idea — automated transcriptions could give healthcare professionals more time to focus on patients instead of endless paperwork. But as Allison Koenecke, a professor at Cornell, points out, nearly 40% of these hallucinations could lead to misinterpretations. And, as Alondra Nelson, former director at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said, “Nobody wants a misdiagnosis. There should be a higher bar.” In <keyword id="23715899" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="medical-transcriptions" source="keywords">medical transcriptions</keyword>, even one mistaken word can be serious. One version of Whisper, for example, took the phrase, “He, the boy, was going to, I’m not sure exactly, take the umbrella,” and turned it into something alarming: “He took a big piece of a cross, a teeny, small piece… I’m sure he didn’t have a terror knife so he killed a number of people.” Disturbing additions like these could leave hospital staff baffled or, worse, could result in patient notes that entirely misrepresent a consultation. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111165894" title="Scientists find speech-to-text AI randomly adding violent language such as &amp;quot;terror,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;knife&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;killed&amp;quot; to audio transcription" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Researchers have analysed thousands of audio samples and found that hallucinations often appear in well-recorded clips, not just in low-quality recordings or when there’s lots of background noise. For instance, when someone said, “After she got the telephone, he began to pray,” Whisper turned it into “I feel like I’m going to fall, I feel like I’m going to fall…” In other cases, it has fabricated nonexistent medications, like “hyperactivated antibiotics,” or injected racial commentary where none existed. Hospitals aren’t the only ones using Whisper — its transcriptions are popping up in call centers, video captions, and consumer voice assistants. In each case, hallucinations could lead to confusion and miscommunication, particularly for those who rely on accuracy, such as the Deaf and hard of hearing community. Whisper can bury made-up text in long transcriptions, meaning someone reviewing the text may struggle to spot which parts are hallucinated, experts warn. <h2>Legal and ethical backlash</h2>With hospitals and health centers pushing forward with Whisper tools, former OpenAI engineer William Saunders believes OpenAI should address this flaw urgently. He points out, “It’s problematic if you put this out there and people are overconfident about what it can do and integrate it into all these other systems.” As usage grows, so do privacy concerns. California State Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who recently refused to allow a health provider to share her child’s medical recordings with OpenAI’s biggest investor, Microsoft Azure, expressed frustration about tech companies handling sensitive data. "The release was very specific that for-profit companies would have the right to have this,” Bauer-Kahan said. “I was like, ‘absolutely not.’” <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="114683256" title="&amp;quot;Jarvis, you there?&amp;quot;: Google&amp;#39;s new AI agent might take over your web browser and carry out tasks on your behalf" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Despite the troubling feedback, OpenAI has been receptive to researchers’ findings. The company is working to address the hallucination issue, but they’ve also issued a warning: Whisper should not be used in “high-risk domains.” Yet, companies like Nabla, which offers Whisper-based tools to transcribe medical appointments, continue to integrate it. Nabla’s approach erases the original audio for “data safety reasons,” meaning hospitals may have no way to verify transcripts. Whisper’s hallucinations are a stark reminder that <keyword id="21222445" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-in-healthcare" source="keywords">AI in healthcare</keyword> isn’t foolproof. The conversation about AI transcription flaws is picking up steam, with experts pushing for regulations and OpenAI encouraged to prioritise fixes. While AI is undeniably changing industries, sometimes its creative input needs a reality check — especially in life-and-death fields like medicine.

OpenAI's tools are making up stuff in hospital transcriptions; can be dangerous for patients, experts warn

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Victims of the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald's are preparing to sue.</li><li>At least one has already filed a lawsuit alleging negligence has been filed.</li></ul>Victims who have been sickened in connection to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-tied-quarter-pounders-2024-10">deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald's</a> famed Quarter Pounders are already lawyering up.Top food safety attorney Ron Simon of the Houston, Texas-based law firm Ron Simon &amp; Associates told Business Insider Wednesday that his phones have been "ringing off the hook" after federal health officials reported the outbreak Tuesday."When we came to the office this morning, we had 100 intakes, 100 phone calls, and emails asking us to represent them," the veteran attorney said. "So our staff is right now going through all of those and determining which are cases."As of Wednesday afternoon, Simon's firm had already been retained by at least 12 people who, according to the attorney, recently tested positive for an E. coli infection after eating <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-quarter-pounder-ecoli-outbreak-why-important-sales-2024-10">McDonald's meals</a>.One of those people, a Colorado man, brought the first lawsuit against the fast-food giant Wednesday — and Simon says he expects his firm to file dozens more lawsuits in the coming days."We will file individual lawsuits on behalf of each of our clients," said Simon, who noted the people he is currently representing range in age from as young as 15 to 55-years-old."Each of the lawsuits will seek compensation for their lost wages, for the significant medical bills they're going to incur, and also to compensate them from the pain and suffering of becoming sick and even hospitalized," Simon said.At least three of Simon's clients have been hospitalized as a result of their E. coli infection, according to the attorney.Simon called the outbreak "a completely preventable tragedy.""If you properly test the food and your ingredients before you put them into service, before you serve them, there shouldn't be outbreaks," he said.Colorado resident Eric Stelly alleges in his lawsuit that he ate food from his local McDonald's in the city of Greeley on October 4 and two days later fell ill with E. coli symptoms, which include bloody diarrhea and vomiting.By October 8, Stelly was hospitalized and he later tested positive for the E. coli O157:H7 strain — the same E. coli strain federal health officials said was linked to the outbreak — the lawsuit, filed by Simon's firm along with the firm Meyers &amp; Flowers, LLC, says.The lawsuit, which alleges negligence by McDonald's, says that health investigators confirmed Stelly was part of the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonalds.Representatives for McDonald's did not immediately respond to a request for comment by BI.In a statement, Simon said the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-ecoli-outbreak-investigation-update-compared-chipotle-2024-10">McDonald's-related E. coli outbreak</a> "will be one of the most significant food poisoning outbreaks this year.""Through this lawsuit and others, we will make sure that all of the victims are fully compensated for their losses, that their voices are heard, and that McDonald's and its suppliers permanently fix the health and safety violations that caused their food to become contaminated with E. coli," he said.Simon — who also filed a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boars-head-listeria-outbreak-deli-meat-death-holocaust-survivor-2024-9">wrongful death lawsuit</a> on behalf of a Holocaust survivor's family against Boar's Head in connection to the recent deli meat listeria outbreak — told BI that he expects McDonald's to settle the anticipated onslaught of claims for millions of dollars."It would be gross negligence on McDonald's part not to try to resolve these cases," Simon said. "There were clearly mistakes made in the testing process — food that was supposed to be safe was not safe. It was contaminated."The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that the E. coli outbreak has so far sickened at least 49 people across 10 states and resulted in one death. The outbreak was linked to 10 hospitalizations, with most of the illnesses occurring in Colorado and Nebraska, according to the CDC.Most people impacted reported eating McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers before becoming sick, the federal agency said.Investigators are working to confirm which ingredient in the hamburgers is responsible for the contamination.McDonald's said it paused the distribution of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-ecoli-outbreak-investigation-update-compared-chipotle-2024-10">slivered onions</a> in the Quarter Pounder and temporarily removed the burger from restaurants in the impacted areas.

Top food safety lawyer says his phones are 'ringing off the hook' after McDonald's E. coli outbreak 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tampa General Hospital is bracing itself for Hurricane Milton with an AquaFence flood barrier.</li><li>The flood wall is made to withstand a storm surge of up to 15 feet above sea level.</li></ul>As <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-timeline-see-storm-evolution-from-space-satellite-imagery-2024-10">Hurricane Milton approaches</a> Florida's central-west coast, Tampa General Hospital, located on a low-lying man-made island, is bracing for disaster, and is preparing to put its flood defenses to the test.The hospital, home to the region's only Level I trauma center, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.tgh.org/news/tgh-press-releases/2024/october/tampa-general-hospital-implements-comprehensive-mitigation-plan-prepare-hurricane-milton">said in a news release</a> that it has deployed a water-impermeable flood barrier, known as an AquaFence, which is made to withstand a storm surge up to 15 feet above sea level.Although the fence was successful in protecting the hospital from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-gas-stations-out-of-fuel-before-hurricane-milton-landfall-2024-10">Hurricane Helene</a> a couple of weeks ago, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-airports-close-evacuation-flights-american-airlines-florida-2024-10">Hurricane Milton</a> may prove more challenging.According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/090854.shtml">National Hurricane Center</a>, Milton could generate storm surges as high as 15 feet — the limit of what the AquaFence is designed to endure.A storm surge is a large rise in seawater levels caused by a storm.Situated on Davis Islands and built in the 1920s from mud dredged from the bottom of Tampa Bay, the hospital is already in a high-risk flood zone, according to Hillsborough County's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://hcfl.gov/residents/public-safety/flooding/find-my-flood-zone">Flood Zone Lookup tool.</a>The county's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://hillsborough.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=960017149a5c40d0a43860aad988d2ec">Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Tool (HEAT)</a> places the hospital in Zone A, indicating that it is in an area that is particularly vulnerable to a storm surge.In a press conference on Tuesday, Tampa's mayor, Jane Castor, urged people in zones A and B to move to higher ground."Say you're in a single-story home," Castor said. "Twelve feet is above that house. So, basically, that's the coffin you're in."Jennifer Crabtree, the hospital's chief of staff, told the Tampa Bay Times that the AquaFence is just the "first line of defense" that has been implemented.AquaFence's flood defenses cost between $300 and $1,000 a linear foot, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-08/tampa-turns-to-flood-proof-fences-as-hurricane-milton-nears">according to Bloomberg</a>, and are in use in over two dozen states, including in areas prone to river flooding.Crabtree also told the newspaper that no patients or hospital staff would be on the first floor of the hospital's main campus during the storm.Erinn Skiba, the hospital's assistant director of public safety, said in the news release that the hospital has a "proactive and comprehensive" plan to protect itself.This includes an on-site central energy plant located 33 feet above sea level, an on-site well, and 5,000 gallons of water being stored at the hospital."Our fence around the Davis Islands campus is up, supplies are stocked at all hospital locations, and the teams stand ready to provide care through <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-world-shut-down-hurricane-milton-florida-orlando-parks-2024-10">Hurricane Milton,</a>" Skiba said.A previous <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://tbrpc.org/phoenix/">disaster-planning project,</a> modeled after a fictional "Hurricane Phoenix" that was more devastating than Milton is expected to be, highlighted Tampa General Hospital's vulnerabilities.Under the simulation, the fictional hurricane could have rendered bridges inaccessible and caused a storm surge to reach the second floor of the hospital.Tampa General Hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.Florida is bracing itself for the arrival of Milton, while still not having fully recovered from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-couple-lost-home-livelihood-home-insurance-medical-bills-2024-10">Hurricane Helene</a>, which made landfall on September 26 and caused widespread damage in the state.As of Tuesday, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2024/10/09/hurricane-helene-insurance-claims.html">the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported</a> that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation had received nearly $1.1 billion in estimated insurance losses.

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How McDonald's can learn from other fast-food giants in recovering from the deadly E. coli outbreak

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OpenAI's tools are making up stuff in hospital transcriptions; can be dangerous for patients, experts warn

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Top food safety lawyer says his phones are 'ringing off the hook' after McDonald's E. coli outbreak

Natalie Musumeci

Tampa Bay's main hospital is built on a low-lying island. Hurricane Milton could push its defenses to the limits.

Joshua Nelken-Zitser

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