Actually

A measles outbreak in Vancouver  has been linked to the anti-vaccination movement. It's a good reminder that even just a few unvaccinated people in the community can have huge unintended consequences.

Community immunity is the science behind the idea that when enough people are vaccinated against a certain disease, it can’t transfer  easily from person to person. The entire community is less likely to get sick — even people who aren’t vaccinated.

"Handwashing is like a “do-it-yourself" vaccine" says the US  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Since many wheelchair users' hands are in constant contact with their wheels, handwashing is self preservation.

Anytime there is a collection of people who are more likely to carry contagions - anti-vaxxers in Vancouver or grubby-handed wheelchair users in Halifax - it endangers everyone.

The Mayo Clinic lists more than a dozen causes of foodborne illness; poor handwashing is certainly connected to some of the 70 gastrointestinal outbreaks in Nova Scotia between Jan 2014 and June 2015.  From Harrietsfield to Halifax, food poisoning is a constant presence.

Six months ago, five Nova Scotians obtained an order from the Human Rights Inquiry requiring the enforcement of food safety regulations for people using wheelchairs on an equal basis with others.  The regulations require convenient public washrooms.

How the hygienic honchos at Environment Nova Scotia overlooked this problem for many years is a good question.  

Now, rather than fleeing at the sight of a wheelchair, restaurant patrons can have some confidence that sanitary amenities are universally available.

Yet six months later, its business-as-usual at the Food Safety Division.  Rather than fixing the menace to health, both regulators and restauranteurs have chosen to do nothing.

Restaurants without decent and  convenient washrooms are public health land mines, waiting to explode.  They should clean up their act.  

And at a restaurant that actually complies with health regulations. some wheelchair user might actually get a job.  Actually.