We're a Covid conscious company.
We:
π Minimise working together (allow WFH)
π² Monitor CO2
πͺοΈ Have air filtration on timers
π· Provide 3M Aura masks
π§ͺ Have LFTs (& will buy them)
π· Provide paid sick leave for isolation/illness
It's not hard.
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Taking each point in turn, here's why we do what we do:
π We allow people to WFH when poss to try to minimise interactions between staff. A few workarounds were needed.
Why--we care about our staff & their families back home & allowing this flexibility helps to reduce risk.
2/
π² We monitor CO2 because it gives us a good proxy for risk. We know that if the CO2 level builds we need to open windows & doors & sometimes use a fan to force extraction. Target 600ppm CO2.
Why--because it lowers the risk to our staff to reduce the amount of shared breath.
3/
πͺοΈ We have filtration on timers. We've made our own DIY filters with @3M filtrete panels on pedestal fans for easy deployment & portability. We have them on wi-fi timers to start an hour before we enter and run and hour after we leave.
Why--because it massively reduces risk.
4/
π· We provide free 3M Aura FFP2 masks. We've found them to be the best-fitting & most comfy masks. Worn when any 2 or more people share indoor air. Nobody has any issue wearing them as we care for each other.
Why--high quality masks reduce aerosol expelled into air & inhaled.
5/
π§ͺ We encourage people to use LFTs if they suspect exposure, feel symptoms or have been in a high risk environment. When they are no longer available from Gov't, we will buy them & supply to staff.
Why--because it is the only way to provide feedback on infection status.
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π· We provide paid leave for people to isolate if they are positive and also if they remain ill.
Why--because we care for them and don't want the to lose out on their income but also because we want to protect every other person who works in or enters our workplace.
7/
We take other measures too like being careful when we have deliveries or collections. Nobody can enter unmasked.
I want my staff to think - AIR QUALITY first.
How do we control what we breathe and how do we reduce risk to anyone in our environment.
8/
The effect of all this. Well so far, everyone has remained free of Covid. People actually feel safe at work and valued.
We don't want illness--we can't function as well and we recognise the potential for Long Covid. If we can reduce that risk--we absolutely should.
9/
So I want to encourage every business to be a #CovidConsciousCompany.
It took some thought & a few changes to the way we operate. It costs us a few Β£ to keep the safety measures in place.
But it isn't hard.
It is the right thing to do.
Every business should do it.
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Conversation with relative I haven't spoken to in a while. I'm a bit of an outcast because of my strong views on Covid but with my mum being unwell, family are contacting me for updates.
It's such an enigma to me how people's brains work (or don't).
Here's how it went:
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Me: I think things started to go downhill for mum when she got shingles.
Rel: Yes I agree. She declined quickly after that.
Me: And people thought it was safe to ignore chicken pox and decades later, it started her demise.
Rel: Yes it lies dormant and can be very serious.
2/
Me: This is why I take Covid seriously. There's a lot we don't know but what we do know from studies urges more caution.
Rel: Well you just have to carry on as normal. When it started, my son worked every day as a key worker. You can't just stop everything indefinitely.
3/
My mum still in hospital. I have reported on the terrible air quality and lack of respiratory protection but I was unprepared for what happened on tonight's visit.
For the 40th time, I visit the ward she's on. As I walk in, nurse says "you know your mum isn't here, right?"
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Well of course I did not know this.
"They moved her in the night"
Where to?
"I'm not too sure - ask at the nursing station"
Why did they move her?
"I don't know"
Another nurse arrives "They moved her to W9"
Why?
"I don't know - ask W9"
Why did nobody inform me?
"I don't know"
2/
As her next of kin, I can't understand not being told this.
Anyway. I arrive in W9.
I'm looking for (mum's name).
"Are you sure she is on this ward"
As it happens, not really but I've been told she was moved here.
"Not on my section. Ask the nurse on Bay A"
3/
Those who say they've 'moved on' from Covid have nothing more than denial & hope.
Us apparent 'zealots' actually look at data and studies. We understand that we're a short way into a long term issue; the full effects of which will take years to be fully obvious & undeniable.
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Finding out several years down the track that what us 'weirdos' have been saying for years was right will be much too late for many.
We also know that if things turn out better than we expect, all we did was adapt our lives to reduce our odds of being irreversibly affected.
2/
We also know many people who have already been really seriously affected by covid infections. We don't ignore them or gaslight them. We listen and acknowledge that what they are suffering is very much inline with what studies have shown covid does to harm us.
3/
Electrostatic filtration media used to make respirators and air filters is a true marvel of science & engineering.
Odd that some think it doesn't work.
HEPA filters have been around for decades too.
HEPA filter technology actually makes it possible for you to read this post.
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"Producing the semiconductor chip that you have in
your computer, phone or tablet, is a highly sensitive process. The chip has to be fabricated
in clean rooms where HEPA filters ensure the air contains less than 1 particle per cubic foot." 2/ camfil.com/en/insights/liβ¦
"As a comparison, most common indoor spaces have hundreds of thousands of air particles per
cubic foot."
Pretty useful tool eh?
Let's also have a look back to 1980 when a paper was written about electret filters. The type of media used in respirators: 3/ sciencedirect.com/science/articlβ¦
Saddened to hear football legend Ian Rush spent 2 days in ICU and is still in hospital with flu.
It can happen to anyone at short notice.
What people don't realise is that when it does, very little is done in hospitals to prevent co-infections with other airborne pathogens.
1/π§΅
When so poorly, you are extremely vulnerable.
You really need to be kept away from other airborne diseases (and other germs of course).
But in my experience, the air quality inside hospitals can be very poor. Nothing like good enough to prevent spread of covid for example. 2/
Also, staff & visitors in many UK hospitals are not required to wear any respiratory protection.
Worse still, staff are encouraged to be at work even if covid +ve as long as 'they feel well'.
The staff are not even protected from the patient and could get a co-infection too.
3/
During the Cvd inquiry, I noted so many references to decisions having to be 'evidence based'.
I would like these people to produce one single piece of evidence that this advised technique prevents transmission of diseases - airborne and other modes.
πShow me the evidence.
1/π§΅
For example, how many times have we been thwarted when wanting to put air filters into classrooms?
Even as a simple emergency measure early on we were told that not enough evidence of efficacy exists.
So much so, that RCTs were called for and then never published.
2/
Ever wonder how much of their advice is actually based on evidence?
Like; is 'consider wearing a mask' based on evidence? Does someone considering doing so ever stop a single infection? Of course not.
Does evidence exist that washing hands prevents cvd infections? Nope.
3/