Dangerous incidents at Covid laboratories, hospitals and testing centers in the UK potentially exposed staff to coronavirus and other hazards during the pandemic, according to official reports obtained by the Guardian.
Many involved leaks and spills of virus-laden fluids, but research was also conducted into a flood at an animal facility that housed Covid-infected monkeys, barriers that led scientists to work on viruses by mistake. alive and a researcher bitten by an infected ferret. .
The Health and Safety Executive recorded at least 47 “dangerous events” related to coronavirus at UK lighthouse research facilities, hospitals and laboratories throughout the pandemic. Reports of 37 cases were reported to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. The rest were withheld due to ongoing investigations.
Reports reflect the immense pressure that scientists, health workers and Lighthouse laboratory staff suffered when Covid ravaged Britain. Researchers ’hours shot up as they ran to understand the lethal new virus. Meanwhile, NHS staff and specialists quickly deployed to the test centers pushed to the breaking point.
Common setbacks were leaks, spills and splashes of virus-laden fluids, some at the hands of humans, others at the hands of robots, which led to rapid evacuations and clean-up operations by biohazard teams. A recurring problem in Lighthouse labs arose because the swabs in the homemade test kits did not break properly, causing people to force them into them into sample tubes before screwing on the caps. This created what the HSE called a “spring coil” that turned the swabs into “projectiles” when the vials were clogged for testing.
On several occasions, scientists worked with live viruses without proper security measures because they believed the virus had been killed, while in other incidents samples of positive Covid tests were transported without the proper precautions. According to HSE reports, two health workers at a Chichester hospital became infected with Covid after not wearing PPE, but there is no evidence that laboratory staff have caught the virus in work errors. In most cases, staff wore adequate PPE.
The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, operated by the UK drug regulator, was investigated after a flood at an animal facility housing Covid-infected tits. It was later found that the lab itself had breached several safety rules when investigators detected water droplets on the bench and on the lab floor after heating the Covid virus stock. The risk of exposure was considered “extremely low”, but the HSE found that the laboratory fell short in planning, monitoring and monitoring Covid’s work, did not provide sufficient information and training to allow safe handling of the virus and did not maintain adequate security. drills.
Public Health England’s Porton Down lab, which also did crucial work on the Covid pandemic, was ordered to improve safety after an investigator was bitten by an infected ferret. An investigation into the incident in May 2020 found that the animal cut the scientist’s protective clothing and extracted blood, which led officials to send the researcher home to care for the wound and self-isolate. se.
The HSE issued a “crown improvement notice” to the Wiltshire laboratory and called on managers to improve safety at various facilities. But with staff “overworked” for “a doubling of the workload,” the case didn’t close for a year.
Allen Roberts, Porton Down’s deputy director for the UK Health Safety Agency (formerly Public Health England), said: “We take the safety of our laboratory scientists very seriously. ‘HSEs have been realized that they have helped to further strengthen existing sound systems and processes to ensure that we continue to work safely.’
An HSE spokesman said the sector’s “very high level of control” is reflected in its good safety and health record. “Cases of mislabeling, or almost errors, are extremely rare. There are strict requirements for reporting incidents and we also hope to share intelligence across the industry,” they said.
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter, every weekday morning at 7:00 BST
Vincent Theobald-Vega, a former HSE inspector and director of the Safety 4 HEd consultancy, said biocontainment labs, the equipment used in them and numerous safety protocols are designed to protect from the worst effects of any incident. But for people working in labs, there are still risks, especially when it comes to handling samples. “Research labs are generally much more dangerous environments than process labs where simple testing is performed in a process line environment,” he said.
“When these controls are broken, it’s important for people to understand what went wrong so that people can change processes and try to prevent the same situation from developing next time. That’s the main goal of research in the security community. and health, ”he added. “If organizations didn’t report, we would all know much less about the ways systems fail and, as a result, labs would be much less secure.”
An MHRA spokesman said staff safety was a top priority and that all accidents or near misses were thoroughly investigated through internal incident investigation procedures to understand why they occurred.
“Following the two incidents related to the emergency procedures referred to in HSE, all emergency scenarios have been reviewed and our training has been updated so that staff can respond appropriately in emergency situations. These incidents were addressed quickly and posed no significant risk of damage to personnel, “the spokesman added.” Non-compliance with the regulations has been fully resolved with changes made to the laboratory and operating procedures for its use “.