Would you like poo with your burger?

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Some light relief today from Maccas as we await the RBA:

A study recently conducted by researchers at London Metropolitan University found that touchscreens used by customers at multiple McDonald’s locations were covered in fecal bacteria. Dr. Paul Matawele, one of the lead researchers in the study, explained that the spread of this bacteria could lead to serious infections.

“We were all surprised how much gut and faecal bacteria there was on the touchscreen machines. These cause the kind of infections that people pick up in hospitals. For instance Enterococcus faecalis is part of the flora of gastrointestinal tracts of healthy humans and other mammals. It is notorious in hospitals for causing hospital acquired infections,” Matawele said.

Researchers tested eight different McDonalds locations throughout the London and Birmingham area, and each location had its own collection of different viruses and bacteria, from listeria at one location to Staphylococcus at another.

I recommend drive through.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.