Introduction/background/objectives

Temperature screening (with infrared thermometers) in workplaces has proven to be controversial, creating discussions between Occupational health services teams, assuming as a "requirement" from workers and/or Employers. This article intends to analyze the evidence of such strategy.

Methodology

This is a descriptive literature review. The search for scientific sources was carried out using the PUBMED (Medline) databases during the month of July 2021, without time limitation, in Portuguese or English, with keywords “temperature screening” and “Covid-19”.

Content

Skin temperature, rather than core temperature, can be influenced by several factors; infrared thermometers does not appear to be reliable enough to detect or exclude fever, and fever is not a characteristic symptom of all infected from Covid-19. Thus, this unreliable proxy does not provide evidence to support its implementation in workplaces as an evidence-based measure. This strategy appears to lend more accountability to marketing and placebo than to evidence, helping workers and Employers feel better, but not doing much and potentially getting worse, by conveying a false sense of security.

Conclusions

Each workplace can determine its own preferences, depending on its particular epidemiological context, and for this reason there is no “right answer” on how Companies should approach this matter- the evidence on this topic is incomplete and the challenges posed by the pandemic are changing; however, in order to delineate more informed decisions, if we are to achieve, as a country, a fast economic recovery, employers will have to stop betting on measures that require resources, but which are placebos.

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