Category: COVID19

Healthy Work Now Newsletter No. 6 – A Note Marnie Dobson & Peter Schnall 

by | Apr 13, 2020 | , ,

A note from HWC Co-Directors, Marnie Dobson & Peter Schnall The world has vastly changed since our last newsletter (December 2019) as we face an unprecedented global pandemic. The coronavirus (specifically COVID-19, named after the year it was discovered) has changed our personal lives dramatically as we try to slow its spread, or “flatten the curve,” in order to prevent an overwhelming load of hospitalizations and deaths. For those families who have lost loved ones,…

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Black Lives Matter: Perspectives from the Healthy Work Campaign

Black Lives Matter: Perspectives from the Healthy Work Campaign

by | Jul 6, 2020 | , , ,

Along with the coronavirus pandemic, America’s epidemic of racism has taken a disproportionate number of black* lives.We watched the Black Lives Matter protests erupt in early June, after another white police officer kneeled on the neck and suffocated another black man—George Floyd. We have heard the pain and the rage of 400 years of violence committed against black Americans. The unacceptable violence inflicted upon black and brown bodies in the United States comes in…

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Health and safety consequences of Reopening Schools

by | Oct 8, 2020 | ,

Marnie Dobson, PhD, Pouran Faghri, MD In July as part of the Healthy Work Campaign , we published Reopening Schools: Mental Health vs Health & Safety on the debate raging in the U.S. about whether schools (K-12) could safely re-open in the fall for in-person classes despite the surging COVID-19 pandemic. The debate seemed to hinge on whether the health and safety concerns related to the pandemic could be outweighed by the educational deficits and…

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Is the government giving up on protecting working people from Covid-19

by | May 6, 2020 | , , ,

It appears that the U.S. government is exploring the possibility of trying to get working people back on the job without providing them with adequate protection in the form of PPE or insisting on proper social distancing. Sending people back to work without protection is a very poor form of trying to achieve herd immunity by infecting the entire population. Unfortunately, there are a few problems with trying to develop herd immunity now in…

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How to protect “essential’ working people from COVID-19 Epidemic

by | Apr 21, 2020 | , , , , , ,

To protect the vulnerable from Covid-19 requires active, assertive and comprehensive identification of 1) those at risk; 2) those infected (but not symptomatic); 3) those with active symptoms; and 4) those who have been infected and now have immunity and can safely return to work. Groups 2 and 3 above pose great danger to our essential workers on the front line of the battle against this epidemic. To provide adequate protection to health workers…

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Stress in the Time of COVID-19

by | Jun 1, 2020 | , , , , ,

As we published our new Medium Article last week Blurred Boundaries: Work-life balance in the time of COVID-19, we received a newly released Stress in America report from the American Psychological Association (APA) on Stress in the Time of COVID-19. Between March 26 and April 4, at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, a survey of a representative sample of 3,000+ U.S. adults was conducted on behalf of the APA to get a current…

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Workers Memorial Day April 28, 2020

by | Apr 28, 2020 | ,

At 11am this morning the world stopped to recognize International Workers Memorial Day (April 28) and remember the tens of thousands of workers who die on the job every year and especially those who have died this year from COVID-19. We at the Healthy Work Campaign also recognize the hundreds of thousands of workers who die yearly from preventable chronic illnesses related to work stressors, including hypertension and CVD, as well as suicides and…

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Workplace conditions that are contributing to the Covid-19 epidemic

by | Sep 22, 2020 | , , ,

Workplace conditions for essential workers typically have three characteristics that contribute to increased risk of exposure to the Covid-19 virus and, once infected, more severe illness:Enclosed spacesHigh population densityPersistent work stressors contribute to biological stress which in turn impacts the workers immune systemAs a consequence we have multiple, structurally imposed feedback loopsMany workers vulnerable to COVID19.Many workers exposed to covid-19 at work Many workers bring iCOVID-19 back to their communities. Living conditions for essential…

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CDC Reverses Itself Once Again. They are STILL WRONG.

by | Sep 22, 2020 | ,

The CDC has reversed itself once again about the transmissibility of the COVID-19 virus. On their website — updated yesterday — they said “A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website. CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted.” Unfortunately, this new recommendation is incorrect…

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Letter to the editor re air travel published by JAMA

by | Oct 5, 2020 | ,

When Passengers Remove Masks Flying Remains a Risk Published Oct 1 Peter Schnall, Professor of Medicine | U of California at Irvine Airlines continue to make progress in improving the safety of passengers from contacting and contracting Covid-19. The filtered air in the planes is not the issue IF the planes have newer HEPA filters (not all do). Unfortunately, the main safety problem is that on an airline passengers remain in close proximity to each…

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