Sobre a covid como doença relacionada ao trabalho e a ocultação desse vínculo
Major workplace role in Covid spread has been buried
Around four in 10 people testing positive for Covid-19 identified ‘a workplace or education event’ as their activity in the days prior to onset of symptoms, ahead of all other causes, an analysis of official figures has revealed. Public Health England data examined by Hazards magazine reveals a sharp rise in Covid-19 outbreaks in workplaces in England tracked ‘an incubation period behind’ the UK government’s back-to-work messages. The research by Hazards found a correlation between calls by the UK government for a return to work and education and a rapid rise in clusters in both settings. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show by 13 September, six weeks after prime minister Boris Johnson’s first call to go back, 62 per cent of adults reported commuting to work. A rise in workplace cases tracked just behind the increase, with a record 141 workplace clusters recorded in the week up to 20 September – two days before Boris Johnson’s policy reversal called for office workers to switch back to working from home and a day after the government raised the Covid-19 alert level to 4, meaning transmission is “high or rising exponentially.” The report concludes that while thousands of workers may have died as result of coronavirus exposures on the job, “the Health and Safety Executive’s workplace Covid database records just 152 Covid-19 deaths as related to work, a small fraction of one per cent of the UK’s coronavirus deaths in working age adults.” HSE’s RIDDOR data tables include just three deaths in manufacturing, two in transportation and storage, and one in education. There were, according to the regulator, no work-related Covid-19 deaths in agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining and quarrying, wholesale and retail trades or construction. ‘Human health and social care activities’ dominate the reports to HSE, with 7,746 cases and 120 deaths. The Hazards report said this sits uneasily with Covid death data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which reveal while death rates are high in these caring jobs, they are lower than the combined total for the other workplace sectors with elevated rates.
Laid bare: The scandal of expendable workers before, during and after Covid, Hazards, Number 151, October 2020.
Health workers linked to 1 in 6 hospital Covid-19 cases
Healthcare workers and their families account for a sixth (17 per cent) of hospital admissions for Covid-19 in the working age population (18-65 years), a study from Scotland has found. Although hospital admission with Covid-19 in this age group was very low overall, the risk for healthcare workers and their families was higher compared with other working age adults, especially for those in “front door” patient facing roles such as paramedics and A&E department staff, say the researchers. They say these findings have implications for the safety and wellbeing of healthcare workers, and their households. Their findings are based on Scottish workforce data for 158,445 healthcare workers (aged 18-65 years), 229,905 household members, and other members of the general population during the peak period for Covid-19 infection in Scotland, from 1 March to 6 June 2020. The researchers found that admission to hospital with Covid-19 was uncommon, with an overall risk of less than 0.5 per cent. However compared with other adults of working age, healthcare workers and their households accounted for 17 per cent of all Covid-19 related hospital admissions, even though they represent only 11 per cent of the working age population. Patient-facing healthcare workers were three times more likely to be admitted to hospital for Covid-19, while members of their households were nearly twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for Covid-19 than other working age adults. Those working in “front door” roles, such as paramedics and A&E department staff, were at the highest risk of hospital admission for Covid-19. The researchers say these findings from the “first wave” in Scotland show that healthcare workers in patient facing roles - especially those in “front door” roles - are, along with their households, at particular risk. And they call on governments, healthcare managers and occupational health specialists to consider how best to protect healthcare workers and their families in the event of a resurgent pandemic.
Anoop SV Shah and others. Risk of hospital admission with coronavirus disease 2019 in healthcare workers and their households: nationwide linkage cohort study, BMJ, 2020; 371: m3582. Published online 28 October 2020.
Scottish study highlight health care worker plight
The study published this week in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) showing health care workers in Scotland are at greater danger from Covid-19 should inform decisions about the organisation of health services, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and redeployment, according to a related editorial. The researchers at Skane University Hospital in Sweden note: “Superspreading events, a hallmark of previous coronavirus outbreaks, contribute substantially to community transmission of Covid-19 and to work related clusters… Increasing experience now suggests that every suspected healthcare associated infection should trigger a bundle of immediate infection control measures, including extensive screening for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), quarantining of all patients on the affected ward, physical distancing between personnel, and use of reinforced PPE during all contact with patients on the affected ward, in order to prevent larger outbreaks.” They add that the reasons for the observed increase in risk in health workers “need to be explored to help to guide safety improvements in healthcare settings.” They call for high quality studies evaluating new prevention and control practices “to guide improvements in our approach to protecting health care workers and their families, including those from ethnic minority communities who have the highest risks of infection and poor outcomes, widening workplace inequality.” The editorial’s authors add that, in accordance with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, “we must ensure the protection and security of all health workers in all settings.”
Ulf Karlsson and Carl-Johan Fraenkel. Editorial: Covid-19: risks to healthcare workers and their families, BMJ, 2020; 371: m3944. Published online 28 October 2020.
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