A Return to In-Person Work with Humberto Buniotto

Editor Note: This episode was recorded prior to the CDC’s May 2021 recommendations concerning vaccinated persons. Advice and information provided is centered around the SARS-CoV-2 testing of LabDX and of the personal recommendations of its CEO based on business trends occurring in relation to health and safety measures relating to the virus.

With the rush back to in-person work and events, safety is still a large concern regarding the virus that has plagued us for over a year. All Business owners and leaders have a responsibility to provide a safe and clean environment. We sat down with the CEO of LabDX to talk about they can do just that.

A Return to In Person

There is little question that businesses are shifting back to in-person and so are events. The world is eager to see a definitive end to this pandemic in order to return to the new normal that awaits.

However, the truth is that the virus lingers even as more people become vaccinated and more drift back into shared spaces. This means that as leaders make the decisions to come back, they must do it responsibly and with every effort to keep employees safe and healthy.

COVID-19 Testing

One of the ways to ensure employee safety is testing as frequently and realistically as you are able and it makes sense for your budget and company size. There are two types of testing.

PCR Testing: This type of testing is the one most commonly used throughout the pandemic for its higher rate of accuracy, though it is more commonly associated with the deep nose swab and taking at least a few days to process if not more. This is due to the fact that results are analyzed in a lab, instead of on the spot.

PCR testing, while accurate, is less effective in the earliest stages of the virus, namely the first few days after someone has been infected with it due to the fact that it is testing the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 (the corona virus’s official name).

“Rapid” Antigen Testing: This type of testing initially got a bad reputation in the first part of the pandemic due to initially low accuracy rates of around 60 percent, but now that those accuracy rates are around 90 percent the tests are more readily used.

Rapid testing is best used to identify the virus in the first few a person is infected, making this test ideal for doing immediately after there’s a concern of someone infected others in an office space or through an even after everyone has joined with a clear PCR test in order to catch spreading early and isolate those individuals.

Additional Safety Measures

As a business, whether you have a choice about in-person work or not, you have a responsibility to provide a safe environment. Should your business cause a spread of the virus amongst its staff or even its customers, you could face heavy backlash and even be shut down for the 2 weeks it takes to be sufficiently comfortable that no one is contagious. 

Social Distancing is still recommended wherever possible since the virus is air born, as well as frequent cleaning. Humberto also recommends still wearing masks, especially indoors, and yes, even vaccinated people. The CDC also recommends keeping sanitizer on hand and easily accessible (at least 60 percent alcohol). Many businesses are putting out hand sanitization stations around the office, which can be found more easily now than when the pandemic hurt, and it wouldn’t go amiss to have other cleaners readily available so employees can clean their desks and shared spaces. 

The CDC has recently said the fully vaccinated persons are exempt from mask-wearing indoors and outdoors in most places. However, with the difficulties in securely showing who is vaccinated and who is not, this makes it difficult to enforce such an exclusionary policy. The forms given at the times of the dosage dating the shot and when it was given, have been recently fabricated by individuals while traveling and have been deemed unreliable as proof. 

Lastly, Humberto recommends testing as frequently as is reasonably accommodated by your business while making as many additional efforts as possible to limit the spread. This means that some businesses don’t have the funds to utilize a company like LabDX due to the size and/or financial burdens they’ve taken on during COVID. Instead, they should work on policies around what they can manage and ensure that such policies are actually enforced. 

One measure that was mentioned during our talk with Humberto was having individuals go get tested before and after traveling and if possible, having them work remotely in a quarantined environment upon their return. He also recommended allowing employees that can and want to work from home easily to continue to do so in order to limit the capacity within your building. 

Our Podcast Episode

We had a great episode with Humberto from LabDX where we included more information on how a few industries have been impacted and are reacting as well as some things that Humberto suspects may happen.

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