This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Hignett, S., Welsh, R. and Banerjee, J. (2021), Human factors issues of working in personal protective equipment during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Anaesthesia, 76 (1), pp.134-135, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15198. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.