Occupational COVID-19: can we claim that compensation is causation?

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became immediately clear that the so-called ‘essential’ workers, forced to continue their jobs to provide vital society services despite the infection risk, would have paid the highest health price. This was gloomily confirmed globally, especially for healthcare workers (HCWs) who became unvoluntary ‘heroes’ of the pandemic.1 Since then, several epidemiological studies, mainly based on record linkage of large population survey data, have identified occupations beyond HCWs at increased COVID-19 risk, such as in social service, education, food manufacturing, and public transport.2–4 After 4 years in the current pandemic, do we know the real occupational COVID-19 burden? Sadly, not yet. The reason lies in the complex dynamics of occupational risk determinants: from the workplace itself (eg, indoor, ventilation, contact with the public), to its risk mitigation strategies (eg, access to personal protective equipment (PPE),...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Editorial Source Type: research