Are London Bus Drivers Safe? Piers Morgan Questions Sadiq Khan | Good Morning Britain

London has recorded the highest number of 20 virus cases of any UK region, with 1,706 deaths reported in the capital alone - at least 10 of them were people working on the public transport network - and unions are now calling for better protection for frontline transportation workers, the mayor. from London, Sadiq Khan, joins us. Good

morning

to you Sadiq Khan, so at least 10 public transport workers have died after testing positive for coronavirus, eight of them were bus workers. Are we equipping our transit workers with enough protective equipment while they perform that essential work? During this crisis, well, first I have some bad news: in fact, 14 London public falls, but the hero workers who lost their lives, 9 bus workers, 3 who worked on the tube, 1 Transport for London and one of our suppliers, can I first?

Start by expressing my thoughts and prayers with them. My deepest condolences to those families. It is a tragic loss. We are Susannah, doing everything we can to ensure that public transport is as

safe

as possible for those who use it, but also for those who work on it. Some time ago we ensured that you have the enhanced cleaning regimes combined with which we cannot learn lessons from everyone, so for example we ensure that we use hospital-style antiviral disinfectant and regularly clean key touchpoints during the course. of a day, so our buses buy juice from the garage and tanks, but the steering wheels and handles we have also made sure that both protective methacrylate glass with a protective film covers the holes so that the saliva from the mouths of the people cannot leave a passenger with respect to you, this is not enough, 9 bus

drivers

have died, so what you are telling us, my bus workers, yes, and that is why they send them every day, you know that we see healthcare workers in full protective suits.

You are in charge of our transportation system in this capital city, you have to do more. I mean, they can't be sent to death like this. We have Nadir Nur, a 48-year-old driver from London, whose widow he and his colleagues did not have any type of PPE. He drove the 394 between Islington and Hackney and was said to be in

good

health before he died. He didn't have any protective equipment. I'm sure you would say that some of the measures were taken, but I have another question that I have come to, which is the PPE issue, so on a number of occasions we have asked Public Health England for advice, Mr Bond, for transport and adjust the default for health, but also the World Health Organization, what they have told us is that personal protective equipment should only be used in care settings, you know that there is a shortage of P P anyway for the NHS and for our social care staff and as recently as yesterday tiredly chased the government for advice on this and their advice is quite clear that transport workers should not be wearing PPE you know the substitute we have made sure.

Sorry Mr. Carr, are you saying they shouldn't wear PPE because they're not at risk or they shouldn't wear PPE because we just don't have enough because if is the latter and it's another example of our lack of preparedness? For what was to come, would you put your

drivers

, bus workers, and transit workers in personal protective equipment if it were available? What I do is on the advice of the WHO and public health England, their advice is not going to follow their advice. is in non-health care settings, people should not wear PPE. You raise a separate point, even if we wanted to do it due to lack of planning, we do not have the PPE, we did not go to the second point for a simple reason.

WHO or DF advice for teaching public health and Public Health England is for us sorry, but with respect, where does common sense come into this? I hear what I hear, all I hear is politician after politician hiding behind advice and what I don't see enough It's common sense if 9 bus drivers in London have died from coronavirus because every day they are sent to risk their lives without adequate personal protective equipment. If I was Mayor of London I would have made sure they had it and I wouldn't take any advice from anyone else and trust my instincts.

These people need better protection. They are dying. To be fair, the first question I was asked was answering some of the steps we were taking using common sense and science. To be fair, you asked me a second question for us. My first question, you were following the experts' advice, which is not to give them PPE. I only answer the first

questions

in your own words, with respect, colleagues. that they wondered when it was in relation to public transportation and then I was sitting outside of some of the steps that we are taking. I'm very happy to explain some of the steps we were taking because it's personal to me, it sounds like you won't just know.

As my father is a bus driver, many of my friends and people do not work in public transport and I work enthusiastically and closely with transport unions, including speaking to bus drivers and those on the front line of regularly, clarify your position there because I thought your position was that you had sought advice on whether PPE was required for bus drivers and other workers in the travel system and you received advice that it was not necessary and therefore you were acting on that advice, that's what he said now is that his position the position is on public transport on buses the measures we are taking on buses include the enhanced cleaning regime that I have talked about, which is not the original advice , what we are doing goes beyond the advice you mentioned, common sense, so we are using antiviral hospital infections.

We are also above the advice to use longer-lasting 30-day antibodies, an effective leader, Mr. Cohn, I'm sorry, this is not enough if it were. You know you come from a family of bus drivers. There will be families all over London whose husbands and wives are going out today as bus drivers and you've just heard that nine bus drivers. have died and a little hand sanitizer is not going to be enough and if you know I'm sorry I'll tell you to do your job but I think common sense has to prevail and if you can have access to PPE for bus drivers in a way that still can drive

safe

ly, then they should, shouldn't they?

There are a number of other measures that we are taking, not antibacterial or antiviral, also, for example, we have a protective film between the passenger and the bus drivers. We have also ensured that there are no passengers sitting there for the bus drivers. We also make sure we are in London. We're lucky we have a door to go through. passengers and a point for passengers to exit. One of the things we're doing is seeing if we can, if just using the back doors keeps passengers away from the bus driver, there's concern that it could create too much salt interaction between passengers.

We have still managed to provide 9% of the boxes, so we don't want to do it inadvertently because we are preventing passengers from coming into contact with drivers. There are too many passengers who come into contact using the back door at the same time as we regularly talk to colleagues around. the world to see what they may be doing, one of the things we know works is keeping distance between the passenger and the bus driver and the passengers from each other, so people have seen that bus drivers should not have contact with any passengers, so whatever you need Shouldn't they come into contact with passengers, especially since nine bus drivers have died from the coronavirus?

It could be affecting passengers, so clearly the first thing to do is close any contact, isn't that the second thing you would do? is to put them in the appropriate personal protective equipment in a way that allows them to drive or protect themselves. I mean, this seems like common sense to me and what really worries me about some of the things we're doing politically as a country is that everyone is hiding behind advice. and don't trust this nine drivers have died right, everyone will go out today knowing that another nine have died this has to stop, let's wait it's really important that the public understand what we are doing and the bus drivers in London, which is A Unlike the entire country, there is a methacrylate barrier between the driver and the passenger of the bus and that methacrylate district has a protective film on top.

As of yesterday, all 9,000 of our buses now have this protective film between the passenger and driver in addition to the methacrylate class. So to reassure them, it is very important that we were sure that we are bus drivers at short notice, but their families, the protective film and the Perspex bureaucracy, and the driver and the passenger, are more than any bus hand in everything the country and you are right, we need to Reassure bus drivers and their families that our buses are as safe as possible, Mr. Mayor, do the best you can for these workers because honestly, it feels like they are just being ignoring in all of this, you know, yes, we adequately protect healthcare workers.

Well, yes, it seems to me that not enough is being done, yes, but I really have to challenge it. they're not really being ignored, please don't say they really aren't, it's personal and we're making sure that we have, you know, the steps in London that I was leading in this area and I wouldn't want anyone to do the same. impression that we are neglecting or ignoring it in bus drivers or real workers, they are as brave as the NHS and because you are acting on advice and you are not doing what I think you know you should do, which is affecting them.

In PPE, that's what would do well in London, we are taking all the measures we can do to keep our public transport safe, but only for our staff, really very important, but also for passengers, and certainly not with large numbers of personal. almost a third missing, we are still running almost like movie buses and all $0.55 of achievements and a shout out to the heroic transportation workers.