Marler Clark calls on McDonalds to step up and pay customers Medical Bills and lost Wages

 Bill Marler, food safety advocate and foodborne illness attorney since 1993, whose Seattle law firm, Marler Clark’s work was recently profiled in the Netflix documentary “Poisoned,” The Dirty Truth about your Food, is calling on McDonalds to pay the medical bills and lost wages of the victims of the E. coli outbreak in the United States that has so far sickened 90, killing one and causing two to suffer acute kidney failure.

According to the CDC, as of October 30, 90 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from 13 states – Wyoming 5, Wisconsin 1, Washington 1, Utah 7, Oregon 1, New Mexico 5, Nebraska 12, Montana 17, Missouri 8, Michigan 2, Kansas 1, Iowa 1 and Colorado 29

Illnesses started on dates ranging from Sept 27, 2024, to October 16, 2024. Of 83 people with information available, 27 have been hospitalized, and two people developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. One death has been reported from an older adult in Colorado. This person is not one of those who developed HUS.

“Unfortunately, those numbers will likely rise in the coming week,”  Marler said. “The cost of treating victims of E. coliinfections can run in the tens of thousands of dollars, or in a severe case, even in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. These families need McDonalds’ to do more than promise to cooperate in the investigation into this outbreak. They need to know that McDonalds intends to fulfill their corporate responsibility by looking out for their customers,” added Marler.

Marler noted that over the last two decades in other outbreak-situations, companies such as Chi-Chi’s, Dole, Jack in the Box, Conagra, Odwalla and Sheetz advanced medical costs for outbreak victims whose illnesses were traced to their food products.

William “Bill” Marler has been a food safety lawyer and advocate since the 1993 Jack-in-the-Box E. coli Outbreak which was chronicled in the book, “Poisoned” and in the recent Netflix documentary by the same name. Bill work has been profiled in the New Yorker, “A Bug in the System;” the Seattle Times, “30 years after the deadly E. coli outbreak, A Seattle attorney still fights for food safety;” the Washington Post, “He helped make burgers safer, Now he is fighting food poisoning again;” and several others.. Dozens of times a year Bill speaks to industry and government throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, China and Australia on why it is important to prevent foodborne illnesses.  He is also a frequent commentator on food litigation and food safety on Marler Blog. Bill is also the publisher of Food Safety News.

Republished with permission from Bill Marler and Marler Clark. Copyright (c) Marler Clark LLP, PS. All rights reserved.