Have an outbreak, lose business; norovirus leads to cancellations at Opryland

One of the consequences of being the source of an outbreak is that folks start to avoid to avoid you. Hotels seem to have persistence issues.

The Tennessean reports that a pharmaceutical company has cancelled a meeting that was to be held at Nashville’s Opryland because of noro concerns.

Gaylord Opryland 20130408-l-LLilly Diabetes, which is a part of Eli Lilly and Company, issued a statement Tuesday about pulling out of Opryland: “The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. After monitoring the situation at Opryland over the weekend, we did make the decision to cancel our meetings that were scheduled there for this week.” As of Monday, the Metro Public Health Department said preliminary lab tests indicate that three people have tested positive for the norovirus. 

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.