Coronavirus Conversations - Return to Work: Protecting Workers' Health During a Pandemic

Co-Sponsored by The Duke Global Health Institute, The Center for Innovation Policy At Duke Law School,and The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School

Across the US, employers are taking steps to bring non-essential employees back into the workplace after shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is easier said than done, as employers encounter logistical hurdles in planning a safe return to work, and coronavirus infection rates spike around the country. To enable a successful return to work, employers must proceed based on the science of how the virus spreads in different work environments, using policies, practices, and procedures carefully crafted to protect worker safety.

Join Duke Science & Society and our panel of experts in a discussion on the risks of spreading COVID-19 in the workplace, how best to protect employee health, and how to balance worker safety against personal freedoms.

Panelists :

Ms. Jessica E. Martinez, M.P.H.: Co-Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health; former member, National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health

Dr. Nicole Bouvier, M.D.: Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine

Sharon Block, J.D.: Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School; former head, Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Labor; former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor

Moderator:

Brian Langloss, Ph.D.: Lead Policy Analyst, Duke Initiative for Science & Society

This virtual event series is open to the public. Press covering the coronavirus outbreak are welcome to attend. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Have an idea for a future Coronavirus Conversation ?

Coronavirus Conversations: A virtual event series from Duke Science & Society

As we practice social distancing, engage in online learning, and work remotely we are burdened with questions about how this pandemic is affecting our lives, the lives of those we love, and the society we are a part of. Over the course of this event series faculty and staff from Duke Science and Society will join academics, lawmakers, students, researchers, doctors, and others to shed some light on the events happening around us and what life will start to look like moving forward.

We will have moderated, casual lunch-time discussions with brief Q&A held via Zoom chat.