COVID-19 Testing Creates Unprecedented Demand For Northeast Ohio Lab Workers

The daily case numbers of COVID-19 reported by the Ohio Department of Health have been on the rise since last month.  Yesterday's reported number of cases was more than 10,000. 

Governor Mike DeWine has described this current surge as the "third wave" of the pandemic. 
As cases have increased, the governor has enlisted the help of healthcare workers to try making the case for people to stay home as much as possible, and to wear masks and practice social distancing when they are out. 

People with confirmed cases of COVID are filling hospital wards, and stretching the limits of what health care providers can do.  Administrators have sounded warnings that we may run out of caretakers, before we run out of capacity.    

But there is one group of healthcare workers that we do not hear as much about -- the men and women in our labs, who continue working tirelessly to test patient samples for the coronavirus. 

Their workload too, has grown to unprecedented levels as the virus spreads.

 This year 2020 will be remembered--or perhaps forgotten-- by many for the upheaval it created: the pandemic, the demonstrations nationwide calling for racial justice, and now the legal battle over the election results.

You could say the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are getting quite the workout this year.

Tuesday, December 15, marks Bill of Rights Day and provides an opportunity to talk about those first 10 amendments to our founding document and about the Constitution itself. 

Brian Rubin, MD, Ph.D, Chair,  Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic 
Ashlie Case Sletvold, Civil Rights Lawyer, President, William K. Thomas American Inn of Court