In this column, William F. Moroney reports on human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) issues that have appeared in the press. Contributions are invited. Please send electronic copy with references to wmoroney1@udayton.edu
COVID 19 is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity in 100 years; so, I deviated from my usual format and provided descriptions of and links to COVID-19 news articles/material that have human factors or ergonomic applications/implications. The following is not comprehensive but reflects selected interactions between COVID-19 and HF/E.
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Activities. Early in the pandemic, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) provided resources on the topics of home-office design (adult home office) and schooling children from home (children schooling from home). Tony Andre (HFES Fellow) adroitly coordinated a wide reaching and informative Town Hall webinar addressing real-time COVID-19 concerns: Facing the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Human Factors Considerations. Five diverse participants described their experiences addressing COVID-19. At the end of May, HFES sponsored a webinar: The Future of Human Factors and Ergonomics Post-COVID-19: A Town Hall Discussion With Past, Present, and Future Presidents; see Events/Webinars/Past at https://www.hfes.org/. After presenting their perspectives, the presenters addressed questions raised by participants. The Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group presented a mini webinar: How COVID-19 Is Changing Ergonomics Practices and Considerations (log in and access it under events/webinar-series/past-webi nars). Finally, HFES newest community, HF/E and COVID-19, developed an informative website (see Communities at https://www.hfes.org/).
Decision Making. SEAN (The Societal Experts Action Network) links decision makers with social, behavioral, and economic science researchers who can provideevidence-based expert guidance that supports local, state, and federal policies and responses related to COVID-19. The National Science Foundation–sponsored network (nationalacademies.org/SEAN) provides rapid, actionable responses to pressing concerns such as COVID-19. For an excellent comparison of the pros and cons of various types of COVID-19 data, see https://bit.ly/31X0puT.
Data Presentation. The COVID-19 database at Johns Hopkins University (https://bit.ly/2CecPUc) is perhaps the most informative since it aggregates data from multiple sources and provides maps, trends, testing, and tracking data as well as brief discussions of the data. Many alternate COVID-19 dashboards have evolved. Most are interactive and allow the user to view maps, graphs, or tabular data. The Harvard Global Health Institute (https://bit.ly/2VWNbdA) provides a risk level map and recommendations for COVID suppression (https://bit.ly/3fbGxb7) within the United States and worldwide. This site reports the number of daily cases per 100,0000 people utilizing a 7-day rolling average for each state and county. The status of the geographic area of interest is color-coded (https://n.pr/2O5Rf71). Good sources for details on the above are https://bit.ly/38OFdZv and https://bit.ly/2O4g0jR. The globalepidemics.org/ visualization utilizes data obtained from World Health Organization (https://bit.ly/38APCaY), COVID-19 Tracker (https://binged.it/2O3B2zn), Our World in Data (https://bit.ly/2DnZTM7), and USAFacts (https://bit.ly/3iMlmPc). Independently, each of these sources provide additional data and rationale for some of the metrics they have chosen. A variety of alternate maps provide one time snapshots such as a presentation that provides data based on ZIP codes (https://bit.ly/2ZaVSmL). Epidemic-stats (https://bit.ly/2Z9lGzo) provides information in tabular and graphic format and allows the reader to examine the data over time. Worldometer provides data for 215 countries (https://bit.ly/2Zb4v0p). Health news from NPR provides daily updates on changes in the number of cases and deaths by state (https://n.pr/2O60iov).
Modeling. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (https://bit.ly/2BPDjLW) models the effectiveness of various COVID countermeasures (https://bit.ly/3fdjIDJ). Since “Mathematical models are a great way to explore questions. They are also a dangerous way to assert answers,” see https://go.nature.com/2O7DYuF.
Changing Nature of Work
Working From Home. Major corporations, including Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Fujitsu, and Accenture, have realized that working from home not only protects the workers but can also increase productivity and reduce meeting times (https://nyti.ms/31Y1RwM; https://cnn.it/2O9aQ6e; https://n.pr/2O9aX1E; https://on.mktw.net/2O8P0A0) Since few at-home offices are ergonomically designed, this has created a market for ergonomic in home-office equipment and workplace redesign: https://bit.ly/2O9bYH0; https://bit.ly/3fcOQTQ; https://bit.ly/2VYU5iE. The new working from home economy will reduce use of traditional office spaces and their unique problems with the airflow and social distancing (https://stanford.io/2AKdZqe; https://on.mktw.net/31WMIvH).
Providing Safe Workspaces. Challenges to providing a safe and healthful workplace include developing a layered defense strategy to counter COVID-19 (https://bit.ly/3eirzip), identifying potentially infected workers/visitors (https://bit.ly/38DJ1we), environmental controls (https://yhoo.it/2CiJS9w and https://bit.ly/2VZMSP9), cleaning spaces (https://bit.ly/38DZW1L), while not creating additional hazards (https://bit.ly/2CdqBGG). For specifics on heathy schools, see https://schools.forhealth.org/.
Protecting Factory Workers. Under the best of conditions meatpacking workers deal with high workflow rates and serial processing. A presidential executive order compelled slaughterhouses and meat practice processing plants to remain open and current meatpacking worker protection guidelines are largely unenforceable (https://bit.ly/2ZOEof4). The pandemic is “the most massive workers’ safety crisis in many decades, and OSHA is in the closet. OSHA is hiding,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist and a former Assistant Secretary of Labor. Many of the meatpacking corporations have taken preventative steps such as recording temperatures and isolating workers by using plastic barriers. But “. . . OSHA’s general guidance plainly says the recommendations are advisory and not a standard or regulation,” and they create “no new legal obligations.” Also see https://bit.ly/2DicQH7
Innovative Strategies
Innovative strategies used in COVID management include
Illustrating the effectiveness of social distancing:
https://bit.ly/38DUbRF
Monitoring social distances: https://bit.ly/2O7gYfo; https://bit.ly/31YyyKw; https://bit.ly/2AEj0QW
Mobile phone tracking of travel and contacts: https://bit.ly/2ZOtlCx; https://bit.ly/3gJrW7b; https://wapo.st/3iJvwjq
Peel and stick face masks: https://bit.ly/3ebNKXk; https://bit.ly/3eblDHN
Effectiveness of face masks:
https://bit.ly/3e8YWnG
A NASA alerting device to reduce facial touching:
https://tcrn.ch/2ZUkjDU
