Experience with research on work physiology under conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic there were far-reaching restrictions in work physiology research. Ongoing studies had to be interrupted or could only be continued under strict hygiene measures. This jeopardized both the quality of the research results and related academic qualifications (e.g., master thesis). This article therefore describes the experiences of scientists from four scientific institutions conducting work physiology research and teaching during the pandemic, which took place under different social, institutional and infrastructural conditions. On this basis, the authors developed a checklist that can be used to carry out a risk assessment for the performance of laboratory and field studies in work physiology under increased potential infection risk, e.g., during a new pandemic or a flu epidemic. The summary of experiences has shown that the occupational safety concepts developed must be constantly reviewed and adapted in accordance with legal requirements, the infection situation and the vaccination status within the population. Training the study teams in the correct application of the protective measures used was also considered important as was communicating with the study participants on which measures will be taken as part of their participation in the study. Furthermore, it is advisable to coordinate the occupational safety concept (including hygiene concept) with the advisory ethics committee and the occupational physician of the respective institution. The checklist itself describes the main hazards and corresponding protective measures so that hazards can be identified and appropriate measures can be derived. Although no SARS-CoV-2 infections related to the research activities were reported at the four sites, it must be acknowledged that the effectiveness of the measures used was not actively tested. Nevertheless, current studies on the effectiveness of different protective measures suggest that the developed checklist contains important and effective measures. A hierarchy of the measures was not undertaken but the protective measures were characterized according to the T-O-P principle.