Occupation and Covid-19: Lessons from the Pandemic

Abstract

Recognition that an individual's job could impact their likelihood of contracting coronavirus disease 2019 created challenges for investigators who sought to better understand and prevent transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Considerable research resources were devoted to separating the effects of occupational from non-occupational risk factors. This commentary highlights results from studies that adjusted for multiple non-occupational risk factors while estimating the effects of occupations and occupational risk factors. Methods used in these studies will prove useful in future infectious disease epidemics and pandemics, and could potentially enrich studies of other occupational infectious and non-infectious respiratory diseases as well.