By Matthew Phelan For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 20:13 EDT, 1 September 2023

Itsu sales bounce back as workers return to office

• Itsu’s restaurant division saw sales hit £101m in 2022, up 73% on 2021
• But sales remain below pre-pandemic levels 
• Profits soared 42% to £6.5m; record number of restaurant openings in 2022

By Daily Mail City & Finance

Updated: 18:01 EDT, 22 August 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

The jury’s no longer out on vaping.

Mountains of research in recent years have shown inhaling high doses of nicotine and heavy metals in e-cigarettes can lead to similar damage to the heart and lungs as smoking traditional cigarettes.

And now, researchers are beginning to warn of the dangers of second-hand nicotine vapor, which likely prompted a new law in Alabama banning residents from vaping in cars with children under 14 present.

Yet as millions of workers will attest, their colleagues are still vaping en masse in offices and other workplaces such as bars and restaurants across the country.

The ease of use and lack of smell means staff can subtly puff at their desks or in the break room without letting off plumes of pungent smoke, which can be odorless or sweet-smelling.

Experts told DailyMail.com society has been slow to catch up to the reality that these devices pose a serious risk to people’s health.

Seeing co-workers vape surreptitiously in the office is commonplace – nearly 62 percent of workers see it daily. 

A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that 76 percent of e-cigarette users reported vaping at work.

And this is a real concern. The aerosolized byproducts of vapes pollute the surrounding air, potentially endangering workers. And non-vapers are fed up, with 74 percent supporting a vape-free workplace. Even vape users – at least 53 percent – support an indoor vaping ban at work.

Those points represent just one set of findings pointing to a growing sense that vaping at work, in bars, and in restaurants should be outlawed, yet in many places it’s not.

Thomas Carr, the Director of National Policy at the American Lung Association told DailyMail.com: ‘The fact that they’re using them indoors, it’s very troubling to hear about this, that workplaces are just turning a blind eye to this because it’s not acceptable to allow vaping indoors.’ 

He added that a shift to working at home full time during the pandemic, when people could vape without disrupting anyone around them, certainly added to the devices widespread use once people returned to their offices in person. 

Mr Carr said: ‘Not being in a workplace and understanding some of the norms that need to exist there and that your vaping is bothering other people. Because there are probably employees in these in places where this is happening that are tolerating it silently, and or maybe even not silently. And I think it’s just that things aren’t being done about it.’ 

A survey conducted in the fall of 2018 reported that, overall, more than 78 percent supported a policy to keep tobacco products out of view in stores where children can shop. More than 63 percent supported a policy to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes altogether.

The majority of participants – 76 percent – also supported prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in bars, 83 percent supported a ban in all indoor public places such as offices and casinos, and 87 percent want a ban in restaurants.

Many workplaces have no rules in place governing vape use in the office, which gives employees tacit permission to puff on the devices at their desks. 

Dr Ashley Merianos, a professor at the University of Cincinnati with expertise in tobacco control, told DailyMail.com that the lack of hard and fast rules is a problem: ‘There may be confusion about whether vapes are covered by tobacco-free policies in work environments if there is no written policy addressing vaping, especially since these products became available on the market after combustible tobacco products.

She added: ‘Even if there is no tobacco-free law that prohibits tobacco use in the work place, it is encouraged that employers enact a strict, comprehensive tobacco-free policy that covers combustible tobacco products and non-combustible tobacco products, including vapes.’

But the days of being able to puff on e-cigarettes with impunity in bars, casinos, college campuses, and work spaces could be coming to an end amid an expanding body of scientific research that shows vaping could be as dangerous to one’s heart and lung health as cigarette smoking.

Societal attitudes toward vaping and how innocuous – or not – it might be have changed noticeably over the past decade.

Part of the shift in perspective came after an outbreak of e-cigarette- or vaping-use-associated lung injury (EVALI) that began in 2019 and by February 2020 had reached a total of more than 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths.

Dr Jason Rose, a physician who specializes in lung injuries, told DailyMail.com that the EVALI outbreak of 2019 finally brought dangers of vaping into the mainstream. 

He said: ‘That did create a situation where it really got publicized that, hey, you know, these might not be completely safe. And that was probably a moment where it’s like, these can actually cause a problem, a clear and present problem.

‘These products really came out 10, 15 years ago, and they just more recently have been getting more publicity.’

In a recent report from the American Heart Association and co-authored by Dr Rose, it was determined vape devices contain a cocktail of nicotine, thickeners, solvents, and flavors that likely pose the same severe risks to cardiovascular health, including raising blood pressure levels and heart rate, as smoking traditional cigarettes.

The true extent of the health harms brought on by vaping, such as driving increased risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), likely won’t become apparent for many more years, though.

Dr Rose said: ‘Biomedical science and research have advanced significantly in the last 120 years. I think we have an experience with what [health harms of] combustible cigarettes looked like historically, that we can use to try to understand a little bit better what these vaping practices have an effect on.

‘We have to be strategic about our research because developing a hard link between product use and COPD, which takes decades to develop, we’re just not able to see it. They’ve only been on the market for 10, 15 years.’

And secondhand aerosols from high-nicotine vape products, while not laced with the same thousands of carcinogens produced as a byproduct of burning tobacco in cigarettes, are not as innocuous as once thought.

The plumes that come from a vaping device such as a Juul or a PuffBar can smell fruity, sweet, or like nothing at all, which scientists believe has lulled users into a false sense of security.

Vapes spew out 22 times the safe level of microscopic toxins known as particulate matter, which is small enough that when inhaled can cause respiratory issues and enter the bloodstream.

Dr Rose said: ‘I would say we don’t have a lot of data on the health risks for secondhand vaping product inhalation. I think policies that follow where other inhaled tobacco products are prohibited (e.g. not allowing smoking in most enclosed workplaces) are prudent.’  

A separate 2019 study in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health sought to measure the lingering effects of taking in second-hand aerosol from e-cigarettes following exposure for about six hours at vaping conventions.

Researchers found chemical markers from exposure to nicotine and tobacco in the environment spiked in 28 people who did not regularly vape after attending in-person conferences where they were surrounded by vapor.

They did not, however, vape themselves. Yet their bodies showed signs of exposure to nicotine and how it is metabolized.

In their urine, levels of two substances, cotinine and trans-3′-hydroxycotinine, were elevated, while levels of cotinine, trans-3′-hydroxycotinine, 3-HPMA, and CEMA were higher in their spit. And concentrations of each varied depending on how much time had passed since the conferences.

The findings signaled that being around e-cigarettes without puffing on them can still lead to higher concentrations of these substances in the body.

They also poke a gaping hole in the argument held by millions who vape that passive exposure to the vapor emitted by the devices must be harmless because it does not leave behind the offensive odor of a traditional cigarette.

With that growing evidence, more people have become aware of this common fallacy and are willing to re-examine cultural norms around vaping.

As the research builds, more officials in states and local governments are implementing various limits on where people can vape.

New York added vaping to be included in the Clean Indoor Air Act in 2017, formally banning it in indoor places. It is one of several states to have passed similar bans, most of which are Democrat-run.

In 2016, California imposed its own ban on vaping in indoor public places, including work settings. Illinois passed a similar ban in 2014 while New Jersey passed one in 2010.

Delaware was the most recent to ban indoor vaping with a law in 2019.

As more research emerges pointing to the deleterious effects of vaping and the aerosol the devices produce, more states and localities are expected to pass restrictions on their use indoors.

Selfridges will axe some head office staff and shop workers in an ‘efficiency restructure’

• Boss of iconic retail brand tells staff some teams will be ‘resized and reshaped’
• Staff will be informed tomorrow of ‘proposed new shape of the organisation’

By Mike Sheen

Published: 12:48 EDT, 10 August 2023 | Updated: 12:48 EDT, 10 August 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

A video of factory workers in China testing electronic cigarettes by puffing on them exposes the disgusting dangers of counterfeit vapes.

A clip from last year – which has gone viral in the past few months- shows men ‘testing’ dozens of disposable ELFBARS before they are sealed and packaged.

ELFBAR- which is based in Shenzhen – told DailyMail.com that the factory in the video ‘does not belong to Elf Bar, and is not affiliated with ELFBAR in any way.’

Another video leaked from Pairyosi Vape – a disposable vape manufacturer in China – shows workers fingering mouthpieces without gloves.

Other photos taken inside these fake factories show filthy sinks and toilets and cigarette ends strewn across the surfaces, close to the vapes.

The footage comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) struggles to get a grip on unauthorized fruity vapes pouring in from China.  

‘ELFBAR prides itself on offering quality products to our users worldwide,’ an ELFBAR spokesperson told DailyMail.com.

‘However, some unscrupulous manufacturers out there are manufacturing and marketing for their own gains counterfeit e-cigarettes, which are placing the industry’s reputation and user safety in jeopardy.

‘To further address the issue, firstly, ELFBAR has long been combating illegal vapes, with an intelligence dossier to track fake products, updated on a weekly basis.

‘Secondly, with the help of unique security codes, users are able to verify product authenticity on our official website globally.’

The spokesperson also said the clone factor was shut down shortly after ELFBAR’s lawyer sent a letter to the manufacturer.

Health agencies have issued warnings against flavored, disposable vapes, which have been especially popular among children. 

In June, the FDA called for 180 stores across the US to stop selling ELFBARS, which have been linked to health problems like lung and heart damage. 

A study published earlier this year suggested that banning fruity and menthol vapes could slash e-cigarette use in teens by as much as 70 percent. 

These bans could be contributing to a mass influx of illegal products and factories.  

ELFBAR was recently sued in the US for trademark infringement and is known now as EBDESIGN in America.

In November, Victor Xiao, the Chief Executive of ELFBAR, said: ‘ Consumers would be horrified if they saw the conditions in which these products are made and quite rightly so. 

‘The criminals behind these counterfeit products care nothing about product safety or the health of consumers, and they cut every corner possible to maximize their profits.’

‘Quite frankly, the conditions in these factories are absolutely squalid where workers man production lines in filthy conditions with no regard to hygiene at all.’

He added: ‘Retailers are opening themselves up to substantial risks by handling these products and must avoid them at all costs. 

‘Because these products have not undergone any safety checks or official testing there is no way of knowing what health risks they cause and our fear is that they could be extremely dangerous.’ 

Images of ELFBAR clone factories show facilities covered in dirt and cigarette remains. 

The 2022 video led to ELFBAR sharing images and footage of how it runs official factories in the city of Shenzhen in southeastern China.

The clip shows a white facility with workers donning white protective gear and gloves.

And the vapes are tested using smoke suction machines – not human mouths.

The newly assembled ElfBars are placed in a suctioning device that pulls on them for about one second to ensure they work correctly.

People have shared stories online about unknowingly purchasing fake Elf Bars.

One TikTok user posted an image of the counterfeit and real e-cigarette that looks nearly identical. 

‘So a customer came in this morning, she said the last ELFBAR she bought was from a gas station that was fake,’ the user posted.

‘She brought it in and said I can use it as an example to keep for the shop. If you pay close attention to the print on the BC5000 you can see a font and bold difference compared to a normal one. 

‘The color pattern doesn’t match to it either. The real one is the one on the bottom. 

‘The fake ELFBARS have weak or dangerous batteries which can cause them to blow up, and the liquids are not FDA-approved.’

There are ways to spot a fake in the wild.

‘Look for signs of counterfeit products, such as a significantly lower price than the retail price, poorly designed packaging, and spelling errors or inconsistencies on the packaging,’ Aroma Vape, an electronic cigarette seller, shared.

‘Be wary of any product that appears too good to be true.’

ELBAR states on its website that it launched an anti-counterfeiting action in June 2021 in a bid to find and close clone factories.

‘The criminals behind these counterfeit products care nothing about product safety or the safety of consumers, and they cut every corner possible to maximize their profits,’ ELFBAR shared in a statement.

‘Frankly, the conditions in these factories are squalid, with workers working in filthy conditions with no regard for hygiene at all. 

‘We would not stand by while counterfeiting proliferates, tarnishing the reputation of the established manufacturers and putting consumers’ safety at significant risk. 

‘We are clamping down hard on the illegal vape market and are building up an intelligence dossier on fake products as the counterfeiters get smarter and more efficient.’

There are clues to spotting a fake ELFBAR, such as the authentic vape featuring a single EAN barcode printed on the side of the box next to the anti-counterfeit holographic sticker.

The video from Pairyosi Vape was posted last month on YouTube by Ryan Horace.

In the footage, viewers are introduced to the computer design of the vape label and packaging before the wiring is constructed in bulk, and the electrical testing is carried out. 

A production line is then shown assembling the products and inserting them into their casings before a worker connects the mouthpiece to the top.

This moment has people reeling with discomfort, leading many to comment on the lack of hygiene practices during the process.

One appalled user, @diverse_nugget9707, wrote: ‘That’s nasty no gloves when putting the top on that you breathe in through – no thanks stay away from vapes all together.’

Other users who are worried about the environment were quick to notice and point out the detrimental amount of plastic used to create the vapes.

A concerned user @choysum9030 asked: ‘Do all these just end up in the landfill?’

Another, @mattnorman4007, wrote: ‘All that’s gonna be in the bin bruh.’

User @0ate5y said: ‘It’s kinda wasteful when you consider what goes into them, battery etc. Just get chucked.’

On Pairyosi Vape’s website, the company declares itself ‘one of the leading manufacturers of electronic cigarettes in the world based in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.’

Regarding its ‘strict quality control,’ the manufacturer boasts of various international certifications such as European (RoHS, CE) and American (UL, FCC) certifications to assure its customers of its clean and controlled production environments.

Growing numbers of NHS and social care workers have revealed they are abandoning their healthcare roles in favour of selling home-made porn and saucy pictures.

Swapping exhausting and poorly paid jobs for OnlyFans, some are making in excess of £1,000 a day thanks to their mountain of subscribers who pay in the region of £10-a-month. 

Charities said they are receiving ‘regular calls from NHS workers – especially nurses’ – about the website. Most are mothers, they claimed. 

But the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a campaign group supporting women in adult work, also warned it was concerned by the increasing levels of ‘stalking and harassment’ these women face. 

OnlyFans is a social media platform, used primarily by adult content creators.

Swathes sell personalised pictures and videos – often while naked – to followers who pay a monthly subscription. Famous users include former glamour model Katie Price, who currently charges subscribers around £7 per month.

Other celebrities, musicians and comedians also use the site for non-sexual content. 

A spokesperson for the ECP told MailOnline: ‘We get regular calls from NHS workers, especially nurses, who are starting sex work including by joining OnlyFans. 

‘Women describe how their NHS wages have been cut severely over the last 10 years and they can no longer cover essentials like rent, food and heating. 

‘Most are mothers supporting families.’ 

They added: ‘Women speak about the money they can earn on OnlyFans as life-saving but it isn’t all a rosy picture. 

‘Women we speak to working in the NHS have to be particularly careful not to show their face and be identified, and that means they have to work harder for less income. 

‘Plus, we have seen an increase in complaints from women about stalking and harassment.’ 

No figures exist on how many have left for OnlyFans.

It comes amid a widespread staffing crisis engulfing the health service.

As well as OnlyFans, carers and NHS staff have been leaving roles paying just £10 an hour for higher salaries at supermarkets, restaurants and online retailers. 

Other medics and nurses have gone abroad, swapping the UK for locations including Australia for better pay, working conditions and work-life balance. 

Hospitals are already short of more than 70,000 staff across England, according to the latest workforce data, with another 40,000 across the wider NHS. 

The problem in social care is even worse, with an estimated 165,000 vacancies.

Since December, ambulance workers, nurses, junior doctors, physiotherapists have taken to the picket lines in disputes over pay and working conditions. 

Some have said they have been unable to pay their rent, with others forced to rely on food banks. 

While three days of junior doctor strikes came to a close on Friday, hundreds of thousands of RCN members began voting last month on whether to continue holding strike action, after the existing six-month mandate ran out at the start of May.   

NHS unions under ‘Agenda for Change’ contracts collectively opted to accept the Government’s offer of a five per cent pay rise plus a one-off payment worth up to £1,600 in England earlier this month.

But nurses in the RCN rejected the deal by a slender majority, leading the general secretary to admit she had ‘underestimated’ members. 

James Cowe left his full time healthcare assistant role at a dementia care home, after making his entire monthly salary in just the first 24 hours on OnlyFans.

Earning under £1,100 per month, he quit in 2021 after the government offered staff a one per cent pay rise. He called it a ‘kick in the teeth’ and warned other social care and NHS staff members were quitting to move into different careers where they felt more appreciated. 

The 25-year-old, from Bournemouth, told MailOnline he had ‘reached breaking point at the peak of Covid’. 

He now spends between 12 to 16 hours a day creating custom content for his 900+ followers, charging subscribers as little as £9 ($11.99) per month. 

‘I left my job with the knowledge that if my employers found out I would have been sacked,’ he said. 

Last month, former ambulance workers Kayley Winterson, 26, and Emily Rose, 28, from Norfolk, revealed they both turned to OnlyFans after the exhausting demands of the frontline role, which saw them endure 15-hour shifts, ‘destroyed’ their mental health.

The couple, who currently charge subscribers around £10 ($12.50) per month, took their joint account full time earlier this year in February after seeing ‘other people change their lives on the platform’ and are now ‘a million times happier’.  

They told MailOnline: ‘There are 100 per cent faceless content creators out there on the platform to subside their wages from the NHS.

‘Working standards in the NHS are poor and turnover is high. I expect to see a lot of people leave over the next few years and find avenues of earning money that are not so detrimental to their wellbeing.’ 

Meanwhile, 32-year-old Michaela Ogilvie, from Ramsgate, left her role as an NHS mental health social worker earlier this year after becoming ‘depressed’ by her role.

Since making the switch, the content creator has amassed nearly 20,000 followers on Instagram and 30,000 on TikTok.

But her income comes from OnlyFans, where she claims she is also in the top two percent of creators on the site and earns up to £1,000 a week. 

She said: ‘I enjoy it so much more than social work – it’s so freeing. For me it’s about taking back control.’

Forum users are also sharing their experiences of their ‘cushy side job’ on OnlyFans in online chatrooms, dubbing it ‘a graft’ and ‘a lot of hustle, blood sweat and tears’. 

Increasing numbers of Reddit threads are also filled with questions from healthcare professionals looking for advice on how to set up accounts and ‘make more money’. 

One user on the forum said ‘I live a double life as a medical professional’, detailed how they balanced their role with creating content on the adult website. 

In another, ‘OnlyFans as a junior doctor’, one said ‘I’ve been desperate to try and hustle few quid here and there from OnlyFans for years’. 

Another questioned, ‘if I don’t disclose that I am a doctor, would the GMC (General Medical Council) have an issue with either? Could it impact my career in any way?’ 

Users equally questioned how medical regulators would react if they were identified via their OnlyFans profile. 

Under guidance for doctors published by the General Medical Council, ‘if a concern means a doctor could pose a risk to patients or to it should be raised with us’, the regulator warns. 

‘If you identify yourself as a doctor in publicly accessible social media, you should also identify yourself by name,’ it adds.

‘Any material written by authors who represent themselves as doctors is likely to be taken on trust and may reasonably be taken to represent the views of the profession more widely.’ 

Anonymous content ‘can in many cases be traced back to its point of origin’, the regulator also cautions.  

Equally, ‘using social media also creates risks, particularly where social and professional boundaries become unclear’. 

And in March, Australian nurses and midwives were warned against posting on  OnlyFans by the industry’s professional complaints body. 

Medical workers risked being ‘a distraction for patients’, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of New South Wales said in an email to the state’s nurses and midwives.

Headlined ‘OnlyFans – Are you breaching the professional standards by subscribing to online content services?’, workers were also urged to discuss scenarios with their colleagues in which they might be recognised by a patient due to their presence on the platform. 

‘If a practitioner is the content creator, then being recognised or publishing photographs in uniform, they could be reported for their conduct – deemed by the complainant as unprofessional, or as one said, a distraction for patients,’ the email read.

‘The social media guidance is clear on the obligation of nurses and midwives to maintain professional boundaries, and where relevant the Nursing and Midwifery Board may consider social media use in your private life – even when there is no identifiable link to you as a registered health practitioner – if it raises concerns about your fitness to hold registration.’

In the US, Allie Rae, 38, was also forced to ditch her 15-year-long nursing career in 2021 after her employer discovered her OnlyFans account and gave her an ultimatum. 

The senior neonatal nurse from Boston, who worked in intensive care throughout the first two years of the pandemic, was told she would be fired if she did not delete her raunchy account.

But the mum-of-three instead turned to sex work full-time and now creates content exclusively with her husband, earning up to £270,000 per month.

Meet the Brits who’ve traded in NHS and social care jobs to earn thousands online on OnlyFans

James Cowe 

The 25-year-old spent six years working as an assistant in dementia care before quitting in March 2021 to embark on his OnlyFans venture. 

He told MailOnline: ‘I initially started working in healthcare part time whilst I was studying at college. 

‘I was attracted to the role because I have a great relationship with my grandparents and loved the idea of being able to look after and care for elderly people. 

‘We have a family-run care home in which I worked at for six months before moving onto various other homes. Then when I finished college I became a full-time healthcare assistant. 

‘All of my roles provided care for vulnerable adults and some with challenging behaviour.’

But after a ‘tough day at work’, one evening that March he ‘opened a bottle of wine, signed up but made the link private’, he said. 

It meant followers had to request his OnlyFans link directly from him.    

‘This gave me a chance to see if there was any interest before fully taking the risk of my family or colleagues finding out,’ he added.

‘Within the first 24 hours I had made over a month’s salary.’

Just three days later he made his OnlyFans link public, handed his notice in with immediate effect and in his first month creating content online, ‘made well over my annual salary’.

He told MailOnline: ‘I reached breaking point at the peak of Covid. With the new guidelines forcing us to wear masks, aprons and gloves for the full 12 hour shifts, it made our jobs extremely uncomfortable in the heat.

‘The demands of the role had changed and became increasingly wearing. At this point I was working full time and earning under £1,100 a month. 

‘With the pressure of never having any money and being in a substantial amounts of debt I felt the one per cent pay rise offered by the government was an insult.’ 

He added: ‘I was looking around on social media to see what other creators were doing to make money and the concept of OnlyFans made me feel uncomfortable. 

‘But after a few months of more gruelling poorly paid shifts it was a concept that I was finding increasingly harder to ignore and more attractive.’

Now boasting over 900 subscribers, this count has fluctuated over the last two and a half years and ‘all depends on the amount of hours I put in’, he noted. 

In February he revealed he had earned £160,000 since turning to OnlyFans full-time. 

On some days he can spend up to 12 to 16 hours ‘creating content’ and ‘engaging’ with his followers. 

‘I feel my healthcare shifts prepared me for such long hours,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘OnlyFans is a full time job, you get out what you put in. But it provides autonomy and freedom in how you work – which is something I didn’t have or had experienced in any of my previous jobs.’

He said: ‘I told my parents a week before I made the jump to OnlyFans and they were really upset about it in the beginning, to be honest. 

‘Both my mum and dad were worried about all the risks involved in essentially being an OnlyFans creator. 

‘But when they saw the success they came around and now my mum films a lot of my content for me and helps me come up with new ideas for Instagram reels.’

He added: ‘My advice to any healthcare worker with an an OnlyFans account would be don’t get caught. 

‘I left my job with the knowledge that if my employers found out I would’ve been sacked.’

Kayley Winterson and Emily Rose 

A couple who worked as emergency medical technicians (EMTs) for the ambulance service ditched their roles to take OnlyFans full-time in February. 

Kayley Winterson, 26, and Emily Rose, 28, from Norfolk, claim they are now a ‘million times happier’ and rake in four times more than what they earned in the NHS, which was around £11-an-hour.

Speaking about their health service roles, they told MailOnline: ‘We both really enjoyed the challenges the pre-hospital environment would send our way. 

‘No day was ever the same and we were able to make a meaningful difference to peoples lives especially during the lockdown.’

Ms Winterson set up an account initially in March 2022, and after leaving the 999 service, worked at a Covid testing centre.

It wasn’t until January 2023, that Ms Rose followed suit after a particularly traumatic call on the job and months of ‘anxiety breakdowns’ and in February, they launched a joint account.  

‘We saw other people change their lives on the platform,’ they said. 

‘Everyone’s goal is to be secure and working for the ambulance service our wages were poor and the work to life balance was zero to none.

‘As a couple, by February 2023 we realised if we were going to do it now was the time. 

‘We missed the opportunity so many people took on this platform during lockdown because we were still working for the ambulance service.’

They currently boast an average of 1,000 subscribers, ‘but this goes up and down as all OnlyFans creators will say,’ they added. 

‘We don’t really focus on the numbers, we focus on making great content and having that connection with our subscribers.

‘Our work life balance is outstanding, we recently bought a campervan and spend a lot of our time resting on different beaches around the UK. 

‘OnlyFans is great because you can schedule content ahead so you can really focus on your wellbeing and rest days. 

‘We dedicate two days a week to content creation and editing and that would then be scheduled so we can enjoy our weekends – every weekend.’ 

There have however been learning curves since taking the role full time, they warned. 

‘We had to learn how to separate OnlyFans from our personal relationship and remember to spend time as just us again. 

‘We give people all access to our relationship but recognise we need some things that are just for us.’

They told MailOnline: ‘Anyone that’s spoken to our face has been rather positive. We can’t and don’t imagine what people are saying behind our backs because we don’t care.

‘This is our life and we are doing what makes us happy. If people chose not to support us because of our job I think it’s a reflection of their emotional intelligence and not ours.’

But they warned not to expect to early ‘instant big money’ when creating an OnlyFans account. 

‘It has no internal traffic so if you’re not bringing your audience across you will not achieve anything. Start by building your social media platforms and really do your research before taking the jump.’ 

They added: ‘There are 100 per cent faceless content creators out there on the platform to subside their wages from the NHS.’ 

‘Working standards in the NHS are poor and turnover is high. I expect to see a lot of people leave over the next few years and find avenues of earning money that are not so detrimental to their wellbeing.’

Michaela Ogilvie 

Michaela Ogilvie was an NHS social worker but now earns up to £1,000 a week on OnlyFans. 

The 32-year-old from Ramsgate, who also has a masters degree in adult social work, claimed her role became ‘depressing’, and following a series of events in February 2023, she started looking for a new income.

She told KentOnline in April: ‘I wasn’t happy – I was really depressed going to work.

‘You have a lot of responsibility as a social worker so it’s not a job you can do half-heartedly.

A series of events involving a ‘rude’ manager and an accident involving an ambulance triggered the decision, she said.  

‘On the way home an ambulance hit the side of my car as it came out of a junction – completely writing it off.

‘That meant I couldn’t get to my job any more anyway.

‘Also, one of my clients passed away. She died in a care home but wanted to be at home, and I realised you can’t do what you want to do to help people in the job.’

The content creator had already built a large TikTok following of almost 20,000, with a further 25,900 on Instagram. 

But her income comes from OnlyFans, where she claims she is also in the top two percent of creators on the site.

She said: ‘I enjoy it so much more than social work – it’s so freeing. For me it’s about taking back control.’

‘Sometimes you get in your head and feel a bit cheap. Sometimes I worry what people think of me.

‘Men ask me to do things with them in person, and people think I’m a s*** – but I’m actually celibate.’

@kkutiepie

Other NHS workers who set up accounts while still working in the health service, have remained anonymous.

A middle-aged single mother from East Yorkshire, known only as @kkutiepie, sends pictures and videos to men on the service alongside her day job as a health worker. 

The woman, who prefers to stay anonymous, also offers sex advice to couples whose sex lives have turned stale.

She told HullLive last year: ‘People might think it’s crazy, but this is about empowering myself as a woman and finally doing something for me, that I want to do.

‘This is a real liberation for me, it’s about taking control of my life and my independence and not being reliant on anyone else financially or emotionally.

‘With this secret job I can keep a roof over our heads and not be forced to ask anyone else for help or money.’

A meagre NHS pay rise left her with no other option but to turn to OnlyFans she said, as her salary was nowhere near enough to pay for her house and bills and didn’t want to have to ask anyone for money.

Starting the account was ‘liberating’, she added, allowing her to be more adventurous after coming out of a long-term relationship.

She said she wants to help women using the site to give them sex advice and act as a ‘therapist’.

Hollie Munroe

For some carers, switching to OnlyFans hasn’t just allowed for a better life in Britain.

Hollie Munroe, now 26, from Hertfordshire, quit her job caring for the elderly to jet off to Marbella in Spain, where she lives off her cash earned on the site.

After five years of being a carer — in which she would work up to 60 hours in a week — she decided to give it up for the adult website.

She told the Daily Star last year: ‘I was going to loads and loads of houses for really s*** money.

‘Of course, there are bits to it that I miss. I enjoyed my job, I liked all of it because it was rewarding.

‘But it was the money for me – I only got paid £8 an hour.’

Charging subscribers around £7.80 ($9.99) per month, she is ranked in the top eight per cent of all OnlyFans accounts. 

Her monthly income varies depending on how much she chooses to post on the site.

But she said she had no plans to move back to the UK because she is enjoying Marbella too much.

‘I get paid for doing basically nothing. I just sit on my phone for a few hours and that’s about it really,’ she said.

‘Every day I get up, go to the beach, go shopping and come home. I just got sick of England and thought I could rent in Spain while doing a lot less. I don’t miss England at all.’

An American man is among seven workers who disappeared from two illegal call centers within a span of seven days in the western Mexico state of Jalisco.

Arizona native Carlos Valladolid, 23, and his sister, Itzel Valladolid, 27, were reported missing by their mother, Elizabeth Hernández, after they failed to return home from their job in the municipality of Zapopan on May 22.

Their coworker, Jorge Moreno, 28, also did not return home the same day.

Multiple Mexican news outlets reported that Carlos Valladolid had recently moved to Jalisco and was living with his sister and mother.

El Universal newspaper reported Monday that the call centers could be linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

The FBI revealed in March that the criminal group had scammed about 600 individuals out of $39.6 million through fraudulently selling or renting their time shares in 2022.

The seven workers had been employed by the call center for two or three months, according to Jalisco State Attorney General, Luis Méndez.

Méndez’s office revealed that the call centers could be among the 19 Mexico-based companies that were placed under investigation by the United States Department of Treasury.

In April, Jalisco New Generation Cartel high-ranking leader, Eduardo Pardo, and six other cartel members were sanctioned for their alledged role in the scheme. 

Over the weekend, agents assigned to the Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office canvassed the two call centers, which are just about a mile away from each other, and found hard drives; USB sticks; computers, documents related to the sale and rental of time shares; and blackboards that contained the names of foreign customers, sales goals and membership information.

Authorities also discovered a cloth with a red stain that is being analyzed.

The other missing workers were identified as Mayra Velázquez, 29, who has not been seen since reporting to work at the call center May 26.

Arturo Robles, 30, was reported missing by his family May 24. 

Jesús Salazar, 37, traveled to the call center the same day for a job interview and never made it back home. 

State Attorney General’s Office agents found Robles’ car parked outside the center. It has since been turned over to his family.

Carlos García , 31, was last seen when he left his home to work May 20. 

Authorities said the Valladolid siblings, Robles, García and Moreno all were employed at a call center located in the Zapopan neighborhood of Jardines Vallarta. Salazar’s interview was scheduled at the same location.

‘We need them back now, we are very hurt,’ Hernández said of her missing son and daughter. ‘We really need the support of all the people who know something and that the information is true.’

Velázquez worked at a call center based out of the nearby neighborhood of La Estancia.

Robles’ sister, Beatriz Robles, told El País newspaper that the Mexican government was not doing enough to find her brother and his coworkers.

 She claims she’s been met with responses of ‘we’re too busy’ or ‘we’re overwhelmed’ or ‘you have to wait’ Each time they have visited the prosecutor’s office for information on their loved ones.

And she understands because the state of Jalisco account for 14,978 of the 110,742 people who have been reported missing in Mexico since 1962.

‘And the truth is that it is difficult not to understand it, because you arrive there and the walls of the Attorney General’s Office are covered with missing persons. You hear about these things on the news,’ Beatriz Robles said. ‘We live in an insecure country, you know these things happen, but you never imagine that it could happen to you. 

‘And this is like fighting a monster that keeps getting bigger and you can’t stop it. The government does nothing. It’s hard, but we keep hoping to find him dead or alive.’

Two British poultry workers have tested positive for bird flu, making them only the second and third human cases ever recorded in the UK. 

Health chiefs today revealed they are monitoring the threat ‘very carefully’ amid ever-growing fears another human pandemic is lurking around the corner.

But no signs of human-to-human transmission have yet been detected in the UK.

So what are the signs of bird flu? How deadly is the virus? And what measures are in place to curb the spread?

Here MailOnline breaks down everything you need to know about the outbreak.  

What is bird flu? 

Bird flu is an infectious type of influenza that spreads among birds.

It can however in rarer cases be transmitted to other mammals and humans. 

Wild birds are carriers, especially through migration.

As they cluster together to breed, the virus spreads rapidly and is then carried to other parts of the globe.

New strains tend to appear first in Asia, from where more than 60 species of shore birds, waders and waterfowl head off to Alaska to breed and mix with migratory birds from the US. Others go west and infect European species.

Which strain of bird flu has been circulating?

H5N1.

So far the virus H5N1 has been detected in some 80million birds and poultry globally since September 2021 — double the previous record the year before.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain is also known to have been circulating in the UK and Europe. 

There are many different strains of bird flu virus and most don’t infect humans. 

But it has not been confirmed which strain both poultry workers tested positive for.  

Earlier this year, on March 27, the World Health Organization (WHO) was also informed that a Chinese woman had become the first person to ever die from the H3N8 strain.

The 56-year-old woman from the southern province of Guangdong was the third person ever known to have been infected with the H3N8 subtype of avian influenza, according to the WHO. 

Although rare in people, H3N8 is common in birds, but it causes little to no sign of disease. 

What are the signs of bird flu?

Among birds who are infected with the most serious strain, signs of infection can include a swollen head, closed and runny eyes, lethargy and even depression.

Unresponsiveness, lack of co-ordination, eating less than usual and a sudden increase or decrease in water consumption, are also common signs, according to Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). 

The virus can only be confirmed through laboratory tests.  

Some species such as ducks, geese and swans can carry and even spread the virus without displaying any symptoms.

Birds infected with the less serious strain of bird flu, called low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), may not show clear signs of infection, but could display mild breathing difficulties. 

Symptoms of bird flu in humans may involve a very high temperature or feeling hot or shivery, aching muscles, a headache and a cough or shortness of breath. 

According to the NHS, other early symptoms could also include diarrhoea, stomach pain, bleeding from the nose and gums and conjunctivitis. 

Both the British workers were spotted through routine testing of people came into contact with infected birds and neither displayed any symptoms, the UKHSA confirmed yesterday.  

Is bird flu a risk to humans?

Yes, but only 873 human cases of bird flu have been reported to the World Health Organization since 2003.

The risk to people has been deemed ‘low’.

But people are strongly urged not to touch sick or dead birds because the virus is lethal, killing 56 per cent of people it does manage to infect.  

The UKHSA said it has not yet detected evidence of human-to-human transmission.

The two new human cases do not currently change the level of risk to human health, they said. 

There has only ever previously been one case of a British person becoming infected with H5N1 since the ongoing outbreak took off in October 2021. 

Alan Gosling, a retired engineer in Devon, caught the virus in early 2022 after his ducks became infected.

He later tested negative while he was quarantined for nearly three weeks. 

All 160 of Mr Gosling’s ducks — including 20 that lived inside his home — were culled after he tested positive. 

How does it spread to humans?

In rare cases, the virus can be transmitted to humans through close contact with a dead or alive infected bird.

This includes touching infected birds, their droppings or bedding. People can also catch bird flu if they kill or prepare infected poultry for eating. 

The UKHSA advises people not to touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds that they find.

Markets where live birds are sold can also be a source of bird flu and should be avoided if you’re travelling to countries that have had an outbreak of bird flu, according to the NHS.

It is not possible to catch bird flu through eating fully cooked poultry or eggs, even in areas with an outbreak of bird flu. 

How deadly is it? 

The H5N1 virus, currently the most prevalent strain in circulation, has killed millions of birds since it started in October 2021. 

Worrying lab experiments have shown some of the H5N1 strains spreading among wild animals can also spread ‘efficiently’ in ferrets with ‘lethal outcomes‘.

This worried experts as ferrets have a similar respiratory makeup to humans, meaning the results provide an idea of how the virus would interact in people. 

And British scientists have predicated the virus could kill one up to one in 20 people it infects, if it ever manages to take off in humans.

Those working on the models include Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist whose chilling projections of the Covid outbreak led the UK Government to impose the first lockdown. 

Under one scenario, officials modelled that the virus could kill up to 5 per cent of people who get infected. The scientists said this was in line with SARS outbreak in 2002.

This is, however, much lower than current estimates for the virus. Bird flu has an actual case-fatality rate of around 50 per cent in humans.

The scientists noted that the risk would vary among different age groups, just like with Covid. 

They also looked at how long it would take for health chiefs to spot that bird flu was spreading among people.

In a worst-case scenario, there would be 9,254 cases before the virus was spotted. 

What measures have been in place?

A ‘mandatory housing order’ for England and Wales was lifted on April 18, meaning poultry and captive birds could be kept outside again.

Bird keepers had been subject to a national housing order since November 7 to help curb an unprecedented number of bird flu cases – more than 330 had been confirmed in the UK since October 2021.

The Government said poultry and other captive birds could be kept outside again unless they were in a specified protection zone.

Officials have also considered vaccinating chickens against bird flu and a government taskforce is currently assessing the benefits of a vaccine as a ‘preventative measure’. 

Some nations, including China, have been vaccinating birds against the H5N1 strain for years.

Birds are vaccinated either via an injection into the egg or a spray onto chicks when they are still in boxes.

Under UK health policy however, vaccinating chickens is currently illegal.

In March, DEFRA confirmed: ‘Although we are exploring potential for use of vaccination as a preventive measure, we are not at the point of changing any policy.’

They added: ‘The use of avian influenza vaccines in poultry and other captive birds is unlikely be a viable option for the 2023/24 high risk season.’

APHA, an arm of DEFRA, is reviewing the bird flu risk to humans every week. 

Is the virus still circulating in the environment?

In April, Dr Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, confirmed the risk of bird flu infection had reduced following restrictive measures throughout the winter, although bird keepers were encouraged to observe ‘stringent standards of biosecurity’.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Professor Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor at UKHSA also said: ‘I think we’re seeing much less detections in farms than we saw pre-winter and even last summer and therefore the overall risk to poultry on our farms is much less than it was before.’ 

If bird flu is suspected, 3km and 10km temporary control zones may be put in place around the infected premises, by DEFRA. 

If bird flu is confirmed, disease zones are put in place around the premises to stop it spreading.

Disease zones are only lifted when all the disease control and surveillance activities within the zone have been completed. 

In April DEFRA confirmed that its ‘enhanced biosecurity requirements’ brought in as part of the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) will remain in force as infection ‘may still be circulating in the environment for several more weeks’.