Rohde, Rodney E.2022-01-312022-01-311/19/2022Rohde, R. E. (2022). The omicron variant is deepening severe staffing shortages in medical laboratories across the US. The Conversation.https://hdl.handle.net/10877/15248Medical laboratory professionals form the backbone of health care and the public health system. They conduct some 13 billion laboratory medicine tests annually in the U.S. As of January 2022, these individuals had also performed more than 860 million COVID-19 tests and counting during the pandemic. Why should anyone care? Laboratory testing is the single highest-volume medical activity affecting Americans, and it drives about two-thirds of all medical decisions made by doctors and other health care professionals. Simply put, every time you enter a hospital or health care facility for care, your life is in the hands of a medical laboratory professional.Text5 pages1 file (.pdf)enpublic healthpandemicpublic health careCenters for Disease Control and PreventionCDCburnoutradiologydoctor burnoutrespiratory healthCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2omicron variantClinical Laboratory Science ProgramArticleThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.