• Question: has COVID-19 affected your job in any way?

    Asked by anon-236364 to Lucy, Greg, Emma, David, Anthony, Anna on 12 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Greg Heikel

      Greg Heikel answered on 12 Mar 2020:

      Not so much so far but there are a lot of plans in place and it is likely that we will get busier at the hospital if a lot of people catch the virus. For the moment though we are all just being extra careful to wash our hands and be hygenic!

    • Photo: Lucy Kelly

      Lucy Kelly answered on 12 Mar 2020:

      A conference I was supposed to go to next week has been cancelled because of it, but that’s about it so far.

    • Photo: Emma Hayhurst

      Emma Hayhurst answered on 12 Mar 2020:

      yes – I’ve had two conferences I was due to speak at cancelled and a trip to meet some other scientists in the middle east. I also published a paper last year about mobile phone contamination in hospitals which is now receiving quite a lot of attention – everyone wants to know if viruses can be passed on from mobile phones (the answer is yes, probably they can, but we don’t need to all be obsessively cleaning our phones). It might be a good idea to wipe it down occasionally though.

    • Photo: Anna Stec

      Anna Stec answered on 12 Mar 2020:

      Yes, it actually has. My project was put on hold because we have to focus our attention and resources on responding to spreading virus.

    • Photo: Anthony De Souza

      Anthony De Souza answered on 17 Mar 2020:

      It has massively affected my job and personal life atm. From my lab side we are preparing for mass staff shortages in case any of us need to self isolate, we are also gearing up for increased testing and reporting of results.

      On the education side of things, I am working with my manager to upskill more junior members of staff so they can cover some of the work. Also needing to welcome lots of staff from other organisations so they can help with testing.

      As mentioned by others, so many meetings, conferences and projects have been cancelled or put on hold!

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