Postal Workers Research Articles

Expanding the roles of malaria post workers in Thailand: A qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives.

In Thailand, since the 2000s, malaria post (MP) workers have been tasked with promptly detecting and treating all malaria cases to prevent onward transmission in the communities. Expanding their roles to provide health services beyond malaria has been proposed as a strategy to sustain their activities until elimination is reached. This article examines the perspectives of stakeholders on community-based malaria care to assess prospects for expanding the role of MPs. The study incorporated in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs). In forested communities and local health facilities in northeast Thailand bordering Lao PDR and Cambodia, where malaria transmission is low, IDIs were conducted with 13 MPs and 23 community members. An additional 14 policymakers and implementers across the health sector in Thailand were interviewed. The respondents highlighted how in these border areas population groups most at risk of malaria, namely forest goers and migrants, are reluctant to visit public health facilities. In these areas, MP workers are well integrated in their communities and remain relevant although the communities no longer see malaria as spriority. Common conditions such as dengue, diabetes, insect bites, diarrhea, mental illness and substance abuse, were identified as local health concerns needing potential add-on services from MP workers. Although challenges in terms of training, supervision, and financing were raised, opportunities included additional funds from local administrative offices to maintain and integrate malaria activities with other health programmes. Changes to the roles of MPs should be adapted to changing local needs, some of which were identified in this study, should avoid duplication and potential tensions with other local health programmes, and need to build on the capacity of the community and primary care system. These enabling factors are worthy of consideration by any malaria programmes looking into maintaining their village malaria workers in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

From Spy to Editor – Informants of Elżbieta Sieniawska née Lubomirska (d. 1729), Wife of the Castellan of Krakow

Research on written newspapers of the Saxon period has been ongoing for several decades. By looking at the avis from the perspective of their editors and purveyors, we get a fuller picture of the mentality of society. Elżbieta Sieniawska, née Lubomirska (d. 1729), Wife of the Castellan of Krakow and one of the most enterprising magnates at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, collected information through her intelligence services. Had it not been for their efforts and every attempt to provide the Krakow castellan with news, it is likely that Sieniawska would have had serious problems keeping her knowledge of the country and the world up to date. Distinguishing in the article the profiles of spies, postal workers and newspaper editors, the author shows not only previously unpublished facts from the life of the information services, but above all points to the dependencies between their services.

Railroad Luxemburg: Rosa Luxemburg’s Theory of Infrastructure and its Consequences for a Public Service Internet

Infrastructures of circulation, transportation, and communication play a central role in Luxemburg’s work in political economy as well as revolutionary strategy. This paper seeks to reconstruct and develop a theory of capitalist infrastructural expansion drawing from a variety of Luxemburg’s writings. In Accumulation of Capital, infrastructural expansion – namely of railroads – plays a central role at all stages of capitalist accumulation. Railroads act as a site of military and state investment for introducing the commodity economy to non-capitalist sectors and eventually for the “capitalist emancipation of the hinterland.” At the same time Luxemburg rejects the progressive character of these infrastructural endeavours, and she argues that they will not be a genuine “stamp of progress in an historical sense” until capitalism has been destroyed. It is no coincidence then that her political writings prominently feature figures such as railway and postal workers, who are strategically positioned to strike at the infrastructures of imperialism. A Luxemburgist theory of infrastructure has important relevance for contemporary debates around the expansion and ownership of Internet infrastructures. The past decade has been marked by various calls for new models of Internet ownership. These include The Public Service Internet Manifesto, the Democratic Socialists of America’s Internet for All Campaign, Tarnoff’s Internet for the People, Téwodros Workneh’s “Case for Telecommunications Commons in Ethiopia,” and netCommons Project’s vision for community networks. Such calls for a publicly owned and funded Internet risk reproducing some of the dynamics Luxemburg describes in her account of the history of railroads, canals, telegraphs etc. Namely, such calls parallel the state subsidising of an infrastructure that seeks out new sites of accumulation and extraction. This is not to say that such endeavours should be wholly abandoned, but must fit into a broader anti-capitalist political program, otherwise such infrastructural expansion can be seen as continuing the expansion of capitalist accumulation. Luxemburg deters us from looking for a technical fix. For this reason, Luxemburg’s political writings and her critique of the non-progressive nature of capitalism are also useful as she indicates how the destruction of capitalism can alter and redeem such large infrastructural projects.

From plaster casts to picket lines: Public support for industrial action in the National Health Service in England.

This paper explores public sentiment towards strike action among healthcare workers, as a result of their perceived inadequate pay. By analysing survey data collected in England between 2022 and 2023, the study focuses on NHS nurses and junior doctors, due to their critical role in delivering essential public services. Results indicate higher public support for strikes by nurses and junior doctors compared to other professions such as postal workers, teachers, rail workers, airport workers, civil servantsand university lecturers. However, variation in support for strikes by healthcare workers is observed across societal segments. Significant disparities in support are linked to individual political affiliations, left-right ideological positionsand trust in the NHS. In short, nonconservative voters, individuals leaning towards left-wing politicsand those with greater trust in the NHS demonstrate higher likelihoods of supporting strikes by health workers. These findings carry implications for future strike decisions and highlight specific target groups for enhanced communication efforts to garner increased public support.

Knowledge and practice of infant exposure to sunlight among mothers in the rural villages of Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia.

Sunlight is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D and supports bone growth and strength. The awareness of mothers about the benefit of exposing their infants to sunlight, as well as the practice of doing so, is important to a child's proper growth and development. The current study looked into mothers' knowledge, practice, and factors related to infant sunlight exposure in rural villages in the Mettu district, southwest Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study design was utilized with randomly selected mothers of newborns from rural areas in the Mettu district. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information. Analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS version 21 software. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out, and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Among the 600 mothers who participated in the present study, 397 (66.2%) had good knowledge and 346 (57.7%) practiced proper exposure of their infants to sunlight. Out of the 482 mothers who practiced sunning, 382 (79.3%) did it daily, and 409 (84.8%) began sunning before 45 days of birth. However, 453 (94%) of the mothers used lubricants while sunbathing. Sociodemographic characteristics were found to have statistically significant associations with the level of knowledge and practice of mothers. Mothers with four to six children [AOR = 0.511, 95% CI: (0.352-0.741)] and those who got the information from health professionals [AOR = 3.285, 95% CI: (2.154, 5.011)] for the knowledge level, and mothers aged 36 years old and above [AOR = 0.801, 95% CI: (0.533, 0.161)], who were married during the data collection period [AOR = 0.370, 95% CI: (0.155, 0.884)], and employed by the government [AOR = 4.081, CI: (1.477, 11.280)] for the practice level were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the level of infant sunning. Despite the fact that the majority of mothers in the study area had good knowledge and practice of infant sunlight exposure, there are clear signs that further work is needed to narrow the large gap seen in the present findings. Thus, district and zonal health offices, as well as stakeholders working with children, should start periodical maternity health education, and professional development training for health post workers.

Topics model of overwork-related deaths in Korea and the implications of SDGs’ decent work perspective

ObjectiveThrough a text network analysis, this study examined major issues related to death from overwork reported in Korean media over the past ten years, focusing on essential workers, and examined the implications for Korean society from the perspective of decent work as described by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MethodsWe retrieved 1,340 news articles from 52 media companies by searching for “death from overwork” as a keyword using the Big Kinds database operated by the Korea Press Foundation. A total of 4,627 nouns were extracted from news articles, and four topics were found by performing topic modeling using the NetMiner 4 program. We also examined the trend of topic ratios by year. ResultsBetween 2012 and 2015, 22–36 news articles were reported annually, and Topic 2 (recognition of death from overwork of public officials) was the most common. Between 2016 and 2019, 72–162 news articles were reported annually, and Topic 1 (postal workers’ extended working hours) was the most common. Between 2020 and 2021, 314–441 news articles were reported annually, and Topic 3 (measures against industrial accidents of courier workers) and Topic 4 (courier sorting and labor union consensus) were the most common. ConclusionIn Korea, postal workers, public officials, and courier workers are vulnerable to death from overwork. This can be resolved by considerably reducing working hours, recognizing industrial accidents, and improving the working environment. From the perspective of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) SDGs’ decent work concept, to sustain workers’ health and well-being, the State and companies should guarantee workers healthy working hours, choice of working hours, guarantee of decent and productive work, and maximum working hours cap system. The labor system and workplace culture should be improved to guarantee workers’ health and well-being.

Policing rights in the UK 2022: an audit

As the UK economy unravels and collective action in defence of livelihood and life spreads, the author explains how 2022 reveals the way the government is reacting to an expanding list of ‘enemies’, heedless of legal and moral restraints. Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have pursued authoritarian responses on many fronts: with increasingly brutal policing of racialised minorities, migrants, asylum seekers and protesters, and ‘crackdowns’ announced or promised on investigative journalists; university campuses; striking nurses, ambulance workers, teachers, rail and postal workers; and ‘human rights’ – against a background of an impoverished and anxious population and a public sector in shreds. This review, though not exhaustive, highlights key aspects of the policing of society and particularly the introduction of new pieces of legislation in the past year.

Low Back Pain and Upper-Extremity Musculoskeletal Disorders in French Postal Workers Driving Light-Duty Vehicles for Mail and Parcel Delivery.

Occupational driving of light-duty vehicles (LDVs) became increasingly important in parcel delivery faced with the explosive growth of e-commerce. Since musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) represent the most reported driving-related health problem, we aimed to analyze the risk of low back pain (LBP) and upper-extremity musculoskeletal disorders (UEMSDs) associated with driving LDVs for parcel delivery. In 306 postal workers exposed to driving and 100 unexposed workers, information on occupational driving, physical/psychosocial constraints, and work organization were collected via a questionnaire. MSDs were assessed using the Nordic Questionnaire, 14 additional questions regarding LBP, and a standardized clinical examination for UEMSDs. Statistical modeling consisted of multivariable logistic regression for UEMSDs and the item response theory approach for LBP. UEMSDs were associated with the distance of rural rounds and inversely associated with urban/mixed delivery rounds. Handling heavy loads was associated with LBP, and high physical demands during delivery rounds were related to MSDs. Karasek dimensions and mobbing actions were associated with MSDs. Work recognition, driving training, using an automatic gearbox, and the utilization of additional staff during peak periods were inversely associated with MSDs. Our results suggest that the distance driven in rural settings and high physical demands were associated with MSDs, while some organizational factors could protect from MSDs.

The prevalence and risk factors of burnout and its association with mental issues and quality of life among hungarian postal workers: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundBurnout is one of the most extensively studied phenomena of the twenty-first century; which has been extensively studied among helping professions, although it can be broadened to several other types of occupation. Based on our knowledge and literature search, no similar studies have been carried out among postal workes to date.MethodsThis cross-sectional questionnaire-based epidemiological study was carried out between May 2021 and January 2022 in five counties in Hungary with the recruitment of postal delivery workers focusing on (1) the prevalence of burnout among postal delivery workers; (2) including the role of demographic parameters, duration of employment as well as the presence of secondary employment; (3) and also analyzed the role of several risk factors and medical conditions; (4) and we also examined the possible association between depression, insomnia and quality of life and burnout.ResultsOverall 1300 questionnaires were successfully delivered and 1034 responses received (response rate of 79.5%). Three hundred sixty-eight males (35.6%) and six hundred sixty-six females (64.4%) participated in our study. The prevalence of burnout was 50.8% (525/1034) in this study population (mean score 2.74 ± 0.33). Logistic regression analysis showed that female gender [OR = 2.380, 95% CI: 1.731 to 2.554], first workplace [OR = 1.891, 95% CI: 1.582 to 2.162] and working more than 30 years [OR = 1.901, 95% CI: 1.608 to 2.326] have significantly increased the likelyhood of burnout as well as the history of muscoskeletal pain [OR = 1.156, 95% CI: 1.009 to1.342], current quality of life [OR = 1.602, 95% CI: 1.473 to 1.669] and the presence of sleep disturbance [OR = 1.289, 95% CI: 1.066 to 1.716].ConclusionThis is the first study in Hungary to investigate the prevalence of burnout among postal workers and to explore the relationship between burnout and mental health problems. Our study underlines the clinical importance of burnout and draws attention to the need for appropriate prevention and treatment strategies.

Условия труда почтово-телеграфных служащих Тамбовской губернии во второй половине XIX – начале XX века

Introduction. The article deals with the problems of working conditions of postal and telegraph employees in the Tambov governorate in the second half of the XIX - early XX century. The relevance of the study is determined by the significant role of communication tool in the life of society and the state.Materials and methods. The research is based on a wide range of archival and published sources. The research is based on the materials from the funds of the State Archive of the Tambov region. A significant part of the archival documents used in the work is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The following methods of scientific research were used: comparative-historical, statistical, analysis, synthesis etc.Results. We study the material position of postal and telegraph employees, content of professional duties, working hours, the system of fines and benefits. The influence of working conditions on the revolutionary activity of communication workers is considered. The author comes to the conclusion that during the period under study, the socio-economic position of postal and telegraph employees was not easy. A long working day, a large number of work duties, the absence of leave for a number of categories of employees, the wage system – all this contributed to the involvement of signalmen in revolutionary activities. Nevertheless, even during the revolution of 1905-1907, the majority of postal and telegraph workers of the Tambov governorate as a whole remained loyal to the state authorities.

Impact of Industry 4.0 Technology on International Posting of Workers

Posting of workers is a common reality in all EU Member States and in all export-oriented industries. The problem relates to existing travel restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of the carbon footprint of business travel. In this context, the development of new Industry 4.0 technologies plays a significant role. The aim of the article is to identify the impact of Industry 4.0 technology on the international posting of workers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic on example of the German chemical industry. The basis of the analysis are two factor conditions of the Diamond Model of M.E. Porter: innovation and human capital. A qualitative study was conducted with experts in Industry 4.0 that regularly post workers. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of technology adoption (especially Augmented Reality cluster). Industry 4.0 technologies enable companies to reduce the posting of workers. For this purpose, IT skills are now the most important, followed by communication, flexibility, and openness, as well as soft, team and didactic skills. JEL Codes: F23, J61, O33

The Essential Writings of Vannevar Bush edited by G. Pascal Zachary

<i>The Essential Writings of Vannevar Bush</i> edited by G. Pascal Zachary

Balázs Ablonczy. Ismeretlen Trianon: Az összeomlás és a békeszerződés történetei, 1918–1921 [Unknown Trianon: histories of the collapse and the peace treaty, 1918–21

Balázs Ablonczy. <i>Ismeretlen Trianon: Az összeomlás és a békeszerződés történetei, 1918–1921</i> [Unknown Trianon: histories of the collapse and the peace treaty, 1918–21

‘It’s as if I’m Worth Nothing’—Cost-Driven Restructuring and the Dignity of Long-Term Workers in Finland’s State-Owned Postal Service Company

Organisational restructuring involving cost-cutting, downsizing, and the acquisition and divestment of different functions is an increasingly normalised aspect of employment in both the private and public sectors. This article takes up the question of the effects of restructuring on workers through a study based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews of long-term workers in Finland’s state-owned postal service, using the concept of dignity as an analytical lens. The article distinguishes between everyday, organisational, and social dignity, using this distinction to capture how workers strove to sustain dignity in a process of organisational restructuring that generated dignity threats related to occupational devaluation. The study shows how dignity in postal work has been dependent on a particular historical configuration of public service work involving the employer organisation, employment relations, and occupational values. Cost-driven restructuring has destabilised this configuration, producing a stark separation between dignity in everyday work and the organisational indignities of restructuring in postal workers’ experiences. Feeling unable to affect organisational changes in their work, postal workers have been left to sustain dignity through everyday relationality, and by drawing intra-organisational boundaries to temporary workers and upper managers based on an occupational hierarchy of commitment and competence. The study highlights the significance of organisational support for dignity at work, particularly in relation to the dignity threats generated by prolonged processes of restructuring.

Interventions to identify and manage depression delivered by 'nontraditional' providers to community-dwelling older adults: A realist review.

Mental health problems experienced by older adults (60+ years of age) may remain hidden due to individual and system-level barriers. Opportunities to support early identification and management are therefore crucial. The National Health Servicerecommends wider public services that are embedded within local communities, but are not traditionally part of the healthcare landscape (i.e.,'nontraditional'),could facilitate engagement with healthcare by members of the public. Evidence for interventions involving Fire and Rescue, Police, Library services and postal workers, as nontraditional providers of mental health services, has not been synthesized previously. This review aims to understand how, why and in what contexts mental health interventions delivered by these nontraditional providers, to older adults, work. A realist review of interventions to identify and/or manage mental health problems (depression with or withoutanxiety) experienced by older adults. Systematic, cluster and iterative literature searches were conducted. Intervention evidence was appraised for rigour and explanatory relevance and then coded to inform context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs). A public advisory group supported our initial evidence search strategy and definition of key terms. This review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020212498). Systematic searches revealed a dearth of evidence reporting mental health interventions delivered by nontraditional providers. Our scope was adjusted to consider interventions delivered by Fire and Police services only and for wider health and wellbeing concerns (e.g., dementia, falls prevention, mental health crises). Forty-three pieces of evidence were synthesized. Key themes included: legitimizing expanded roles, focusing on risk, intervention flexibility and organization integration; further subthemes are described. Themes map onto CMOCs and inform a preliminary programme theory. Findings were transposed to mental health contexts. Findings highlight challenges and opportunities for Fire and Police services, as nontraditional providers, to deliver interventions that identify and/or manage mental health problems among older adults. Our programme theory explains what could work, how, for whom and also by whom (i.e., which public services). Further empirical evidence is needed to test interventions, understand acceptability and inform implementation. A public advisory group comprising older adults with lived experience of mental health problemsand informal caregiverscontributed to the original application, reviewed the scopeand informed the approach to dissemination.

James Joyce's Correspondence ed. by Dirk Van Hulle et al.

Reviewed by: James Joyce's Correspondence ed. by Dirk Van Hulle et al. Patrick Hastings (bio) JAMES JOYCE'S CORRESPONDENCE, edited by Dirk Van Hulle, Robert Spoo, Michael Groden, Kevin Dettmar, Ronan Crowley, William S. Brockman, Josip Batinić, and Sabrina Alonso. Antwerp: University of Antwerp, 2021. Online, < http://jamesjoycecorrespondence.org/index/html>. Molly Bloom thinks that receiving a new letter "fills up your whole day and life always something to think about every moment and see it all round you like a new world."1 A new world of letters is forthcoming in the edition planned by <jamesjoycecorrespondence.org> and will eventually double James Joyce's published correspondence. The editorial team of Dirk Van Hulle, Robert Spoo, Michael Groden, Kevin Dettmar, Ronan Crowley, William S. Brockman, Josip Batinić, and Sabrina Alonso have begun releasing Joyce's previously unpublished letters, drawing upon the holdings of nearly seventy institutions as well as private collections. The edition will eventually comprise a total of nearly 2,000 pieces of correspondence, and the online format allows the flexibility to release these in related installments. The first of these installments, available now on <jamesjoycecorrespondence.org>, principally contains Joyce's letters to Ezra Pound. We can expect further tranches to be published in due course. The project was previously planned as a three-volume scholarly edition scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in 2017,2 but this new online edition takes full advantage of web-based features, while providing extensive annotations, as well as introductory essays that frame the contents of the letters. Readers undertaking a study of these new discoveries might feel compelled to review previously published volumes of Joyce's letters3 or, in the case of this first installment, by keeping a copy of Pound/Joyce (which contains Pound's side of the correspondence) open beside the computer.4 Not so. The online edition's annotations, which conveniently appear on a split-screen beside the text of Joyce's letter, helpfully contextualize each of the newly published letters within the larger body of Joyce's correspondence. The notes accompanying each letter range between 1,000-2,000 words, taking advantage [End Page 706] of the expansiveness of an online space to gloss any and all details that might be useful to readers and researchers. Indeed, I cannot imagine such extensive notes appearing in a print edition, whether as footnotes or even on a page opposite from the letter. The annotations prove insightful, such as when they explain Joyce's maneuvers in seeking publication, or when they offer details about how the Italian military attacked Trieste in World War I. They are also illuminating, as when they expand upon Joyce's fear of thunderstorms or when they tell how Joyce's night on the lash with two postal workers inflamed his eye condition of irido-ciclitis (and when they explain what iridociclitis actually is). These notes benefit from an interface that intuitively meets the reader's needs; clicking a superscript numeral within the letter automatically scrolls through the side-bar of notes to the corresponding annotation. Furthermore, the functionality of hyperlinks within the notes allows readers quickly to access related letters and other relevant annotations, including stand-alone biography pages that introduce the people mentioned by Joyce in the letters. The notes for each letter effectively engage the full body of Joyce's correspondence and may be the closest de facto substitute for a single index to all of Joyce's letters (although the possibility of a comprehensive index remains appealing). The first installment of correspondence released to the edition features eighty-seven letters from Joyce to Pound, which expands the correspondence between Joyce and Pound by more than 75 percent. Most of these letters were composed during the era when Joyce was struggling to get his work published; accordingly, this group features annotations that provide helpful context regarding various figures in the avant-garde publishing environment as well as the legal constraints facing those publishers. Furthermore, Robert Spoo's lively introductory essay describes the complexity of Joyce's interests and unfolds a closely studied narrative of the relationship between Joyce and Pound, pointing to relevant letters within the edition that give contemporaneous voice...

They ‘never dared say “boo” while the British were here’: the postal strike of 1922 and the Irish Civil War

AbstractThis article examines the causes and consequences of the 1922 postal strike which was the first nationwide strike to occur following the establishment of the Irish Free State. In the eyes of the government, the dispute was as much a threat to its authority as that posed by anti-Treatyies, and it was resolved to crush both. The significance of the postal dispute within the annals of Irish labour history has been obscured and overshadowed by the civil war. The strike was not only about a demand for a fair and reasonable wage: it also raised issues relating to workers’ rights, including the right to strike; government tactics, including the harassment and intimidation of workers by the military; victimisation; political propriety and probity; the abuse of government power; and the role and effectiveness of the labour movement. Furthermore, the historical collision of both the postal strike and the civil war produced strong emotions among all parties to this labour dispute – the postal workers, postal unions and the fledgling government. The coincidence of the dispute and the civil war determined the government's attitude towards labour unrest, labour affairs and labour relations until Fianna Fáil succeeded Cumann na nGaedheal in 1932.

Ergonomic assessment of postal workers’ pain symptoms and musculoskeletal risks related to parcel processing activity for delivery

The parcel delivery activity is carried out all over the world and workers in this sector have suffered from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) due to the strong demand for work generated by the recent increase in e-commerce. This study aimed to evaluate postal workers' pain symptoms, movements and identify MSDs risks related to the parcel processing activity for delivery, proposing preventive measures. A sample of thirty-two workers was evaluated with the application of sociodemographic and Nordic questionnaires and electrical bioimpedance. The motion capture sensors were used to evaluate right/left shoulder joints, segment C7-T1 (Cervical) and segment L5-S1 (Lumbar) of three postal workers (percentiles of anthropometric data: 5, 50, and 95) during four real work activities that are part of the parcel processing. The analyzed workers presented musculoskeletal complaints in practically all body regions, with a greater prevalence in shoulders, hands, lower back, and knees. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), they were on average overweight (27.8 ± 3.7 kg/m2). In the movement analysis, we identified risks related to cervical protrusion, anterior trunk flexion, and shoulder flexion, in addition to repetitive movements. In some activities, the higher stature showed an increase in lumbar and cervical anterior flexion. The set of evaluations showed that the activity of processing orders for delivery offers musculoskeletal risks. We identify that ergonomic adaptations are necessary to adapt the heights of the work environment to the statures of the postal workers. Relevance to industry: The activity of processing orders for delivery is carried out practically all over the world generating jobs and income for its employees. Nonetheless, there are still situations of ergonomic disadvantage that can generate musculoskeletal risks. The findings elucidate ergonomic risks and provide useful information for future ergonomic interventions in the postal/delivery workplace environment.

Dangerous Dogs, Postal Workers and the “Householder” Defence

Dangerous Dogs, Postal Workers and the “Householder” Defence

The COVID Care Crisis and its Implications for Legal Academia

From February 2020, when the SARS COVID virus began to have global effects until now, the world has been in the midst of the worst viral pandemic in recent memory. No country was prepared for the rapid escalation of the spread of the virus worldwide that has taken nearly five million lives globally and over 700,000 in the United States alone. Even in March and April 2020, although cities had begun to quarantine and lockdown, none could have predicted the surges of cases and the longevity of the pandemic. Schools and businesses were closed only to open again and close again as the unpredictable virus took its course and as we all tried to haphazardly change to keep up. For many families, parents working and children learning from home utterly collapsed the private/public distinctions that allowed for some semblance of work-life balance. Others who were deemed “essential workers” like medical professionals, grocery store workers, delivery and postal workers, earning a livelihood literally meant risking one’s life and the lives of near family to earn a wage and to provide critical services. It is safe to say that the pandemic upended most of our lives.