Barcelona 2022

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Occupational COVID-19: current and future impact

Hot topics
Chairs: S. De Matteis (Cagliari, Italy), R. de la Hoz (New York, United States)
Aims: To present the latest evidence on the occupational risk factors for COVID-19 in support of a global recognition and compensation of COVID-19 and long COVID-19 as new occupational diseases; to present an international overview of the most adversely impacted and best studied occupational groups, in particular healthcare workers (HCWs); to discuss how occupational health services could be a privileged observatory to study and manage the COVID-19 pandemic because of their key role in implementing preventive measures, especially vaccination programmes, administrative and engineering controls, personal protective equipment and health surveillance and management of COVID-19 cases, including testing, contact tracing and return to work of long COVID-19 cases; to seek to identify research needs in relation to risk for occupational groups other than HCWs, especially among the most vulnerable social categories, such as migrants, to estimate the true occupational health burden of COVID-19, thereby providing effective and efficient governmental mitigation policies to prevent the associated public health burden and increase preparedness for future pandemics.

Epidemiology of occupational COVID-19 K. Straif (Ste. Foy-les-Lyon, France)
Long COVID-19: an epidemiologist, clinician and patient perspective E. Polverino (Barcelona, Spain)
Fast-tracking the development of vaccines during a pandemic: what have we learnt? L. Fregonese (London, United Kingdom)
COVID-19 and returning to work: an international online survey P. Powell (Sheffield (South Yorkshire), United Kingdom)
Discussion and Q&A