I’m an occupational health doctor. I run a small consultancy and my clients consist of local SMEs and some larger corporates. We do a whole range of workplace related medicals, including fitness to work decisions. I have very serious concerns about how the COVID-19 response is impacting on business.
Background to the Problem
COVID-19 is now being treated as a workplace health hazard, similar to asbestos or pathogens in a biological laboratory. This could have disastrous consequences for the economy which relies on people being able to attend work.
The initial response of business to Covid-19 was reasonable. It posed an equal risk in any setting, and it was only natural that employers would need to accommodate the same sorts of measures to slow its spread as were required in all other aspects of life and in any other setting (i.e. frequent hand washing, minimising close contact with others, etc). Early on, employers responded quickly to enable their employees to adhere to the generic public health guidance when they were in the workplace.
However, there is now an increasing tendency for COVID-19 to be regarded as a workplace hazard. This is not entirely unjustified in certain occupational groups, where early data suggest there might be some increased risk, but it is striking that front line NHS staff do not appear to be such a group. My concern is that regarding COVID-19 as a workplace hazard on a par with asbestos or radiation is not helpful.
This obsession with COVID-19 as a workplace hazard has arisen for several reasons.
With the lockdown, the workplace suddenly became the most likely site of transmission of the infection for many people, but this is an artificial situation created by an extraordinary and necessarily brief adjustment to ordinary life – it is being reversed as we speak.
It may also have stemmed from the idea that NHS staff were at far greater risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their work role on the “front line”. I understand that we now know this to be unlikely. Workers are just as likely to acquire it at home, in the shops or on public transport.
Significant discussion in the media about PPE (personal protective equipment) adds to the perception that COVID-19 is a workplace hazard. As the term indicates, the aim is to protect the wearer from some external hazard in their work environment. How could we have such fevered debate about inadequate provision of PPE without there being a serious workplace hazard?
But, accepting a few occupational groups who may be at a marginally increased risk, COVID-19 is likely to pose the same risk to individuals regardless of work. There are other types of hazard which affect workers and non-workers equally, for example natural background radiation and seasonal flu. Neither of these are specific to the workplace (with a few exceptions such as aviation or specialised labs). Never once have I come across influenza virus being regarded as a workplace hazard, even though it is quite possible one could contract it whilst at work. Some companies offer flu vaccine to staff, but not because of a duty of care to protect their staff from contracting flu whilst in work; rather it is offered in the belief that it helps reduce sickness absence in the flu season.
During a national co-ordinated response to COVID-19, it is inevitable that workplaces will need to play their role in slowing transmission of the virus throughout the population, and this might make COVID-19 look like a hazard unique to the workplace, but it is not.
The Problem
An exaggerated perception of the risk that COVID-19 poses in workplaces will cause major problems for UK businesses and operations of all kinds.
COVID-19 (or our response to it) has transformed every workplace in the land into a high risk work environment. There are many types of high risk work environment – nuclear industry, asbestos removal, biohazard labs. We know where these are and generally the UK has excellent systems for protecting employees, but in all of these settings there is a significant support infrastructure in the background. You need health and safety officers, hygienists, specialist cleaning staff and doctors and nurses to assess individual fitness. Environments are risk assessed, adjusted and improved, cleaned and monitored. It’s a big effort.
The current perception of the risk posed by COVID-19 means that the entire UK’s place of work has become high risk, and borderline lethal. In fact, a laboratory processing dangerous pathogens would be a far preferable place to work. At least in the laboratory you know exactly where the pathogens are. You can isolate and contain them. You can easily identify staff most at risk (the one’s handling things in the extraction cabinet). This means the risk of contamination is extremely low, and your workers can be reassured that the threat is contained. Not so with the post COVID-19 workplace (which is now every workplace in the land) – here you have no hope of knowing where the pathogen is. You cannot contain it. You must put in place universal distancing and cleaning measures throughout every part of your operation. You must issue PPE, with all of the regulations surrounding the provision of PPE. You must screen every employee with an underlying medical condition to determine if they are safe to even enter the workplace.
The sense of risk to businesses is heightened by the knowledge that COVID-19 infection could even be RIDDOR reportable (formally reported to HSE as a disease caused by a biological agent present in the work environment).
Many news articles are perpetuating the view of COVID-19 as specifically a workplace hazard, and a particularly lethal one, such as this one in the Guardian.
Every single employee, returning to almost any workplace in the country, now needs to be risk assessed to characterise the risk to their safety. For many, this will be a quick process. But for many others with common, chronic health conditions (who will number several millions nationally), it will require significant resource to undertake assessments. As there is little guidance available and given the fear of a backlash from the media, unions, lawyers or the authorities, many employers will feel forced into excluding workers, even where there is little evidence that this is necessary. Employees may feel forced back in fear of their lives, whilst others will not be allowed back despite being desperate for a return to normality.
Final Comment
I am greatly concerned that the “new normal” will create an environment in which businesses will struggle to survive.
I can accept that workplaces need to make changes, and they must be encouraged to do this through reasonable means. I can accept that transmission will occur in workplaces and this should not be ignored. There needs to be accommodation for those shielding to remain at home. But employers cannot be made responsible for the misery of COVID-19, or blamed for its transmission in society. Businesses should be encouraged to play their role (and in my experience, they are – to an extreme degree), but they should not have to try and get the nation back to work whilst fearing sanctions because of a hazard that is universally present.
This week I’ve been wading through pages of medical guidance on how we can medically risk assess every medical condition. Alongside all of the other impacts, such as social distancing reducing office occupancy to less than 30% of normal, high sickness for months as self isolation policies continue, dealing with the palpable fear among staff, and coping with serious wider economic challenges, I struggle to see how this situation can be remotely sustainable for businesses.
I accept that for some workers, COVID-19 might make the workplace a hostile environment, and this needs prioritising and addressing. But I also fear that business itself is at risk of finding itself in a hostile environment, and one that many businesses will not survive.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Looks like we could be cancelling our holiday booked for Saturday then. Thanks Grant Shapps you twat.
are you vaccinated? presume not… same for me, although wife is. we’re supposed to be off to portugal but that’s shitcanned. oh well, small price to pay for me to keep my principles
I’m not and neither is my wife. She’s wavering because needs to go abroad for work.
I said ‘give it 6 months, either there’ll be a vacc induced catastrophe or theyre fine and I’ll get one too’
covid will have disappeared by then and it will be moot
I feel sorry for people that have to go abroad but for me I’ll just stay here until it all blows over
It will blow over. But what sort of “normality” will remain? Remember, we are ruled much more by convention than by laws written by politicians…
I don’t trust the mRNA vaccs nor does wife. Moved Spain hol to next summer.
Nasty feeling they’re going to force vacc on everyone, or you’ll be excluded from society.
We’d hold out for Valneva if pushed into a corner – it seems more like a traditional flu vacc with inactivated virus. Not heard anything negative on it (yet!)
I’ll just be surprised if any of them work. They’ve tried to get a corona vaccine for 40 years. They’ve tried to get an mRNA vaccine for 20 years.
All failed – the only way they could get them into arms was to skip trials and go for emergency licensing.
Agreed, none will work. But if it absolutely comes down to something or ‘concentration camp’ ( I exagerate for effect), then we too would reluctantly go for the Valneva jab if it ever gets approval. It is the least worst. I sincerely hope it won’t come to that.
Just finished booking flights via to two countries to Tampa that is currently a route that is ‘open’ for nonvaxed and border restrictions.
Fingers crossed it stays that way for a bit.
Not just your principles – how about your life?
Honestly I think the risks are low with the jab but it’s principle for me. I don’t need it, and don’t want it. Simple.
I expect the risks are low but we won’t know for a few years. This is the problem for me. I think its utterly wrong to rush out a vaccine (or any medicine) for the whole world 6 months out of the lab. Even if it turns out ok its still morally wrong because its luck. Next time might not be so lucky
“Even if it turns out ok its still morally wrong because its luck. Next time might not be so lucky“
Yes, having this debate with a doctor friend. He thinks “fingers crossed it looks like there won’t be any huge disaster so it will have been justified”.
It’s as though someone spins the cylinder on a revolver with one bullet in it, puts it to your head and pulls the trigger for a laugh, and you shrug and say hey it’s alright because the chamber was empty.
Exactly!!
So much for the “precautionary principle”, eh?
I disagree with your doctor friend.
None of it has been justified.
My position too. Not particularly worried about the health effects, for myself, but if someone pushes me I push back.
Tell that to the 1400+ people who have died or the 1 million + who have had serious adverse reactions in this country alone. Check out the yellow card reporting system which it is said counts for between 1 and 10% of the true number.
None of us are. I’ve persuaded my husband our health & principles are more important than a holiday.
I’m sure he’d get it, but there’s no point if I won’t. And we both agree the children will never be jabbed.
Integrity.
Is it me or is keeping one’s principles harder than it used to be?
MILLIONS are seriously injured or dead from covid vaccines – EU database
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-07-15-millions-seriously-injured-dead-covid-vaccines-database.html
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
*****************************
if you do go you will have to self isolate for 6 days with early release and pay for 2 additional PCR tests (randox PCR tests £43 each with easyjet) – so holiday is still doable but certainly more inconvenient
I’m fine self isolating but my husband says he can’t (he has work…though I’m sure he’s trying to negotiate his leave right now).
The children I guess don’t have to isolate anyway? They’re 12 & 14
We have discussed and decided husband will do this. Or I might. Inspired by our politicians, I went online looking for a loophole and think we may have found one for him. There are LOTS of them. Lots and lots.
Why not go by private jet, the rules don’t seem to apply, and soon the fuel for private jets will be tax free, whoopee!
I like the way you’re thinking. My husband IS a pilot. We could just steal one maybe.
Well WITH-COVID might soon become the 23rd biggest thing mentioned on death certificates in May!!!
It’s obviously an emergency.
Shapps is typical of the thick headed scum that inhabit our present vile government. A face that needs kicking again and again.
Be careful or you’ll be accused of ‘antisemitism’.
of course – now only the vaxxed wont have to quarantine on return to UK – this is about punishing the unvaxxed – pure an simple
Even if I had been up for a jab, which I am not, I wouldn’t be 2 weeks post second dose most likely.
there is no reason for any country to be promoted from amber to green because amber is already green for the vaxxed
yes precisely. so they will never move stuff to green to punish the unvaxxed
The vaxxed still have to wear the masks throughout (can be pretty rough on long haul), still have to have a test on arrival and before departure. Doesn’t seem like much of a reward to me.
no quarantine on return to UK and 2 less PCR tests (if have early release test) – re masks, on my recent trip to spain I wore my life saving mask under my nose then took it off after take off – no problems from anybody. – but your right – I wouldnt be doing any long haul – but nowhere i usually go will let me in anyway
I did long haul last summer. It was fine. Nobody hassles you if you look asleep so just drink yourself unconscious
I would make a sandwich last three hours.
I made a small bottle of water last five.
It was empty for the last two hours.
No one has to wear a mask, even on a plane exemptions apply. Those who wear a mask do so for ease or because they like it. BA never said a word to me about a mask either journey.
Whatever happened to Freedom Air? Or did I imagine that bit?
https://www.vaxcontrolgroup.com/
Be careful where you leave any personal data, this may be a handy honey trap.
The thought had crossed my mind.
Lockdown Sceptics is a WordPress site. You think your email address is safe from an order to WP from the authorities to reveal your email address to them?
I post under my real name. They are welcome to come for me if that day arrives.
You think I didn’t set up an email address just for here?
Yes, my thoughts also, could be a sure fire way of getting a comprehensive list of the unvaxxed
they already know who is vaxxed, therefore they know everyone else is not
Precisely!
There is absolutely no information who is behind this, I would not hand my details over.
Check their Twitter feed. See what you think.
https://twitter.com/VaxControlGroup
Rooting out moles is a very difficult task. There is no replacement for knowing someone personally. I am trying to get more info.
IMPORTANT to say that I found them through LockdownSceptics.org
It would be great if it is bona fide, but the whole covid fiasco has been such an elaborate deceit on such an unprecedented level that it might well be just a ploy to locate the unvaccinated.
I wouldn’t worry about this site…I’m sure no matter how many opt-out things we’ve signed with the NHS that if the Govt wanted to find out from the NHS who hasn’t been vaccinated (under ’emergency powers’ etc!) they could, very easily!
Yet another MSM article parrotted uncritically
There is no scientific basis for any travel restrictions
Why isn’t LS making that case?
Why are they playing on the government’s terms?
This decision can be explained best by means of a Venn Diagram.
All being done to annoy people so that they cave in and get v@xxed
That is exactly what this is about and always has been.
As most of us predicted, the moral and intellectual midgets like Shapps will not easily give up the power to f. up people’s lives.
I’ve not planned to go abroad – but that’s beside the point.
yep, and its more coercion for the young to get the experimental gene therapy
He’s not the shappest knife in the drawer, is he?
They are fucking with us. Brazenly, arrogantly and openly.
Yes they are and have been ever since this started. it was and is nothing to do with our health and everything to do with controlling us. Watching the antics of the G7 in Cornwall should have bust this scam open wide!
A ninety four year old woman stands cheek by jowl with foreign visitors who have not been quarantined and we’re supposed to ignore what they do and believe what they say.
All part of The Project plan
BIG BLUBBER is MOCKING YOU
What an incompetent twat! Hes perfect cover for the cowardly idiot we have as PM, you know , the bastard who calls our enemies “ our friends” when they slap him down
I wonder when they’re going to make enough people angry that you start hearing more about it. A lot of people will take not going on holiday in stride, but tempting them and snatching it away must make even the most ardent lockdown proponent angry.
True, but to the Lockdown Zealots it will just be a chance to moan about the nasty tories, rather than focus on the elephant in the room.
..
Oh come on. Don’t be unfair. They’re outdoors and sitting down, and everyone knows that forces ALL infectious diseases (not only SARS-CoVID-2) to leave you well alone.
And, of course, there’s no “r” in the month.
Also private jets cleanse the body and VIP lanyards eliminate viral particles.
Is that being thrown out of the one or hanged with the other, with the eternal panacea being Death?
I suspect the change came about because the unvaccinated uber rich (hey, they don’t want some dodgy untested gene therapy that might kill them clogging up their veins do they, mammon forbid) will be casting off on their super yachts to all those newly amber-ed destinations where they’ll party with their fellow plutocrats like its 1939! and without the great unwashed spoiling their view except to pour them another glass of bubbles or to boil them a lobster. Couldn’t be fucking clearer.
It’s a total shambles. Outbound balls-ups, inbound cockups and queues, and every one a nice little earner for some crooks from the Government downwards. We did quite well in 1940, but is it really necessary to have the neglects and disasters of that year, just to be able to engender some sort of “Dunkirk Spirit”?
A sense of menace and near at hand danger that isn’t imminent threat of death is surprisingly popular amongst people inclined to obey officialdom without thinking.
This is now planned and deliberate – this endless uncertainty is designed to break peoples will and stop them from travelling.
I find it incredible that people put up with this crap from this evil government.
So the same mayhem as last summer, before there were jabs.
Governments the world desperately try to keep up the illusion that they are dealing with this made up problem while heaping more and more abuse on their populations.
Boy are the masses dumb as f**k.
It’s far, far worse and restrictive everywhere than last year.
That alone should make even sheep think and complain.
This after the vote by Parliament yesterday to make vaccines mandatory for care home workers …
The Pig Dictator and his lackays in ‘Parliament’ are intent upon officially signing away even the tiny rest of their sovereignty to the WHO in November.
From then on, the UK will officially be ruled from Geneva.
Ah, the new EU! Their revenge will be of the Carthaginian variety then?
Ah, a peasant’s revolt! Bring it on! Just don’t demand a flagon of ale or refuse to remove your hat when you meet the king like Watt Tyler did…
F ING farce.
The Gaurdian is never worth reading in full.
or in part.
Nor is it of any use in the jakes or lighting a stove. Too wet in both instances.
It does however provide a rich supply of pictures of arseholes on whose faces my hens can crap, whilst bedded down for the night in their coop.
Your poor hens.
NarrativePaper is solely for composting.
Some of this really makes you wonder.
It’s quite obvious if you think about it that the travel restrictions make absolutely no difference because they aren’t close enough to 100% to stop any of the variants from coming in. After all, ten people can spread a virus just as easily as one hundred or one thousand. We can’t even have restrictions that are strong enough to stop infected people from coming in because we’re importing food via the Chunnel and the lorry drivers have a fast pass in via testing. Of course, the testing has a significant false negative rate and there are huge numbers of drivers going back and forth.
And, in fact, we have received each and every variant.
Shapps, Johnson, Hancock, etc, all know this because they’re not so unintelligent to fail to see that all of these measures aren’t going to make any difference at all.
So, this means that they are preventing families from seeing each other and people from taking holidays for what they know is no reason at all.
One wonders why the press doesn’t mention this…
They want to stop us travelling altogether. It is part of the Green Agenda and zero carbon policy.
They (the wealthy elite) will be still be zooming about in their private jets and making little forays to the edge of space because they will be off setting their carbon footprint elsewhere, of course.
Spot on Monica. That’s the only possible explanation for this madness. It certainly hasn’t got anything to do with Covid.
Agree, decimating the commercial airline industry was always part of the plan. Another instance of where Covid has been ‘weaponised’ to effect social change.
Theh are unintelligent, the aim is not to stop a spread of some virus. They are simply trying to make travel as difficult as possible. As Monica days below there is a different agenda here.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-vaccine-hesitancy-young-adults-hamper.html
Medical Junta PR tries to guilt trip people into joining risky experiment
And ramping up the Long Covid (formerly known as post-viral fatigue) bogeyman!
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-greta-thunberg-effect-belies-autistic.html
And this is just nonsense on stilts.
Do… uh… do Our Vaccines work less efficaciously depending on which label the Home Office has put on a piece of geography?
Truly, this sentient Virus from Nowhere, and Our Vaccines, are redefining Our Settled Science every day, in every way.
I don’t go abroad on holiday, but this fiasco over the restrictions on travelling have had a knock-on making a holiday in the UK unaffordable, as there’s far more demand. It was bad enough normally during the school holiday season, but now the prices are eye-watering.
That is true.
It has another knock-on effect. Here in the Western Isles, the quotient of car-bound arseholes on single-track roads has rocketed, impairing the quietude. Mad Wee Krankie, Straight-Jacket Sridhar and armchair petrolhead pollution, to boot :-). Is there no escape?
“The Guardian report is worth reading in full.”
Now there’s a sentence you don’t see very often.
And it’s still a lie.
“Julia Hartley-Brewer
To clarify, if Mallorca and other Balearic Islands go back on the amber list from Saturday:
Anyone flying home this Thurs or Fri, no quarantine
Anyone flying home on Sat or Sun, 10 days quarantine
Anyone flying home from Mon, no quarantine
That makes perfect sense, right? ”
Since when did ‘sense’ have anything to do with it?
Does anyone have a template letter for mask exemption for travelling on a plane. The typical lanyard is not enough for easyjet, they want a doctor’s letter which most doctor’s are refusing to give as they say self-certify. Typical government loop of hell. Just want to get on a plane without suffocating and panicking…
I sympathize. But this is one thing GPs are getting right. No easy solution.
Fake one?
This is a load of bs and I’m not saying you should comply, but why don’t you just write the letter yourself from a fictional doctor? Even if they call them then they’re only going to get a receptionist who don’t even seem to be able to give out appointments let alone confirm that you’re a patient or any medical details.
If they phone my GP the won’t even get that. Just a long winded answerphone message wingding about Covid and tellIng them to log onto the practices website (or better still bugger off and not bother them at all – well they did not say that is those exact words but that is the general gist of the message).
Come on people – WAKE UP!!!
ITS OVER!
One rule for them, another for us? Thousands of ministers and officials are escaping self-isolation rules thanks to ‘get out of jail free card’ pilot scheme that means they can take daily tests instead. Cabinet Office is among the bodies signed up to a pilot scheme replacing self-isolation with daily testing .
Thousands of ministers and government officials are escaping self-isolation thanks to a pilot scheme that amounts to a ‘get out of jail free card’, it was revealed today.
The Cabinet Office, Border Force and Transport for London are among the bodies signed up to a trial that replaces quarantine with daily testing – meaning they can continue working after being ‘pinged’ for close contact with a positive case. Michael Gove used the arrangements to avoid self-isolating when he returned from watching the Champions’ League final in Porto in May.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9787883/Ministers-officials-escaping-self-isolation-thanks-pilot-scheme.html
I reckon daily testing is more of a bind than quarantine – which you can ignore.
So some are now fighting to have the same ‘privilege’, Daily Testing, gimme gimme. The Behavioural Scientist wheels keep on turning
Ministers secretly take part in ‘get out of jail free’ Covid trial to avoid self-isolationStaff at three government departments sign up to pilot scheme, enabling them to return to work immediately after being notified by NHS app.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/13/ministers-secretly-take-part-get-jail-free-covid-trial-avoid/
We are becoming more and more soviet like by the day.
If only they would review the emergency legal apparatus they are abusing to keep this farce going with such frequency.
I yearn for the day that these lot get carted off.
More proof if any any were needed not to engage in anyway whatsoever with this regime until it has been removed
Absolutely.
Who is going to remove it and how?
Some say that the jab is part of a global depopulation programme through sterilisation.
I am glad to see an increasing number of government ministers are doing their part in this programme by being total wankers.
Probably not satisfying even for them since most of them lack the cojones.
They do say that but the Chinese have just removed the 1/2 child law
Did Grant Shapps used to have a part as a puppet in Thunderbirds? I truly hope I never have to meet him.
And yet the rich and famous are on beaches all over the world, is this their NWO, Top of their pyramid scheme are the Rich and Famous bottom are the plebs. Island nations which traditionally travel more and by air are targeted first by the Greenies
Went for a walk near Leeds Bradford airport on Sunday. In 1 hour I saw 6 private jets land. They were the only aircraft I saw.
But why are they having these lists at all ifthe “vaccines” work? Or do they intend to permanently reduce the number of those who can holiday abroad (with opposition support)?
The Mirror etc. should be campaigning on this – “politicians’ plan to prevent working class foreign holidays” etc. – shoukldn’t they? (And I remember that story about a local newspaper editor who said “we are as independent as our budget allows”…).
Isn’t “The Science” so scientific!? Shapps, Khant, BoZo, SAGE, etc. need to go back to school ( or jail!).
Hold tight and sit it out. Bust the travel industry until they stand up to this tyrannical government.
Back to ‘jab and fly’ at the airport. How considerate. Bet the ‘boosters’ will be available soon at the local airport.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thelocal.de/20210713/stuttgart-airport-passengers-offered-covid-vaccine-without-appointment/%3famp
Good
The collaborators need to suffer by their own hand they enabled this
Mind Game Playing Power Drunk Fascism
The gormless Mr Shapps really has worked hard at making himself part of the problem. He has encouraged the spending of our money on divisive “low traffic” nonsense. He has fucked up numerous holiday and business travel plans, and he has weighed in on the highly divisive mask wearing “expectation”.
He’s like Sadiq Khan with his brains bashed out.
MILLIONS are seriously injured or dead from covid vaccines – EU database
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-07-15-millions-seriously-injured-dead-covid-vaccines-database.html
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell