According to Reuters, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pushed back against complaints from Chipotle Mexican Grill that the health agency misinformed the public with its reporting of certain E. coli cases linked to the burrito chain.

The CDC, in a letter to a lawyer representing Chipotle, said it believes its web updates on the outbreaks served to protect and inform the public.

The CDC’s response, which was posted online this week and dated April 15, said its updates provided people who may have become sick after eating at Chipotle restaurants with information they might have needed to be diagnosed and treated for E. coli O26.

In December, Chipotle’s lawyer said in a letter to the CDC that some of the agency’s updates were confusing and unclear and that their release “only acts to create public panic.”

For a supposedly modernly hipster chain, Chipotle is purely old school when it comes to going public: patronizing, paternalistic, pathetic.