Recruiters should target five personas for hiring new talent and retaining existing staff, McKinsey says, a goal that would be challenging for clinical laboratories recruiting medical technologists
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups continue to struggle filling vacated positions with new hires and retaining adequate staff due to what has been dubbed the “Great Resignation.” The ongoing, pandemic-era phenomenon is seeing people leave their jobs in mass exodus and remains a characteristic of the 2022 labor market.
According to the US Department of Labor, 4.3 million people quit their jobs in January of this year. Of equal significance for hospital and health system medical laboratories with shrinking budgets, compensation rates are increasing for these positions at a steady pace.
This international economic trend continues to affect businesses across the country as workers leave their jobs in record numbers. Especially hard hit are hospitals and clinical laboratories, and recruiters seem at a loss as to what can be done to turn it around.
“This isn’t just a passing trend, or a pandemic-related change to the labor market,” Bonnie Dowling (above), Associate Partner at McKinsey, told CNBC. “There’s been a fundamental shift in workers’ mentality, and their willingness to prioritize other things in their life beyond whatever job they hold. We’re never going back to how things were in 2019.” Clinical laboratory recruiters can attest to that statement as they continue to struggle to fill open positions and maintain staffing levels. (Photo copyright: McKinsey and Company.)
Workers Are Unhappy and Unsatisfied
For their report, McKinsey surveyed more than 12,000 workers located in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Singapore to determine why they are resigning and what factors would sway them to remain in their positions.
Their findings suggest that 40% of the people in the workforce are unhappy and unsatisfied in their current jobs and are seeking better, more fulfilling employment opportunities. Among those workers who have recently resigned from a job, 41% said lack of opportunity for upward mobility and no pay or benefits was the top reason they quit.
The McKinsey analysts noted certain repetitive occurrences during the past year they attributed to the Great Resignation, which McKinsey calls the Great Attrition:
Reshuffling: Workers are resigning and taking positions in other industries, which is causing some industries to disproportionately lose talent.
Reinventing: Workers are vacating traditional employment and choosing nontraditional roles, such as temporary, gig, part-time work, or they are opting to start their own businesses.
Reassessing: Workers are leaving the workforce entirely to focus on other priorities, such as taking care of children or relatives, concentrating on self-care, or pursuing other interests.
Recruiters Should Focus on Five Unique Personas
As of June 30, there were 10.7 million job openings in the US, according to US Bureau of Labor statistics. And some industries, such as healthcare, are losing talent to other industries.
Among surveyed individuals who quit their jobs between April 2020 and April 2022 in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, 54% accepted a position within another industry or did not return to the workforce, according to McKinsey analysts.
The McKinsey report urges hiring managers to focus on five unique personas in their efforts to target and hire desired talent, and retain them as employees:
Traditionalists: Career-oriented individuals who are the mainstay of the classic labor pool. They are easier to find through common recruitment strategies, according to McKinsey, and are motivated by compensation, benefits, job titles, status, and opportunities for career advancement.
Do-it-yourselfers: These workers are typically 25 to 45 years old and value flexibility above all else when choosing jobs. They want autonomy to establish their own hours and the type of duties they will perform. This includes gig, part-time, and self-employed workers as well as full-time employees in nontraditional roles.
Caregivers: Workers who are at home due to other priorities, but who may be looking for an opportunity to re-enter the workforce. People in this group desire companies that are willing to work around their personal schedules. They could be coaxed back into the labor force with part-time options, four-day work weeks, flexible hours, and work-at-home positions.
Idealists: These workers tend to be in the 18- to 24-year-old age range, may be working part-time, or may still be students. These individuals value being part of a community and are most easily swayed by companies that have a strong organizational culture with an emphasis on meaning and purpose.
Relaxers: People who are not looking for work, but who could be convinced to return to the labor force under ideal circumstances. This group is mostly comprised of early- and natural-age retirees who still have productive years left. They represent the largest percentage of the latent workforce, McKinsey noted. Companies should consider seeking out these seasoned workers who may be more interested in meaningful work than a big paycheck.
“More employers have opened up their aperture in order to meet the yawning talent gap that they’re facing,” said Bonnie Dowling, Associate Partner at McKinsey and one of the authors of the report in an interview with CNBC. “They’re prioritizing skills over educational background or previous job experience, which is creating more opportunities across sectors for job-seekers.”
Four Strategies for Retaining Workers
Finally, the McKinsey report offered four strategies that companies can focus on to retain their existing talent and avoid resignations:
Sharpen traditional employee value status through compensation, benefits, career advancement potential, reputable job titles, and the overall prestige of the organization.
Build creative, nontraditional, value propositions revolving around flexibility, a strong company culture, and more personalized methods of career progression.
Expand and tailor talent-seeking approaches to woo nontraditional workers.
Invest in more meaning and belonging in the company’s culture to build stronger teams and relationships among workers.
“It’s everything from embedding flexibility in our credo to reassessing how we value our employees and provide them with the resources they need to do their job. All employers have the capacity to make these meaningful changes,” Dowling said. “But we have to start taking action, as opposed to sitting back and hoping that things are going to return to a ‘pre-pandemic norm’ because all signs point to the fact that they won’t.”
The ongoing labor shortage is affecting many industries, but it has been especially hard on healthcare and clinical laboratories.
Clinical laboratory recruiters may want to begin looking at the shifting economic scene in the US as an opportunity to restructure workplaces and create a better model to avoid resignations and retain workers.
Viral reservoir could be behind persistence, says study, which also suggests a blood biomarker could be found for clinical laboratory testing
Microbiologists and virologists working closely with physicians treating long COVID-19 patients will gain new insights in a study that found coronavirus spike protein in COVID-19 patients’ blood up to 12 months after diagnosis. The researchers believe their findings could be used to develop a clinical laboratory biomarker for long COVID-19.
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital said medical experts are not sure why some people have unwelcome symptoms weeks and months after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, while others clear the infection without lingering effects.
The scientists believe if this work is validated, clinical laboratories might gain an assay to use in the diagnosis of long COVID-19.
“The half-life of spike protein in the body is pretty short, so its presence indicates that there must be some kind of active viral reservoir,” said David Walt, PhD (above), Professor of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and lead author of the study that found coronavirus spike protein in long COVID patients. The study findings indicate a potential clinical laboratory biomarker for long COVID-19. (Photo copyright: Brigham and Women’s Hospital.)
Viral Reservoir Possibly Behind Long COVID-19
The study suggests that SARS-CoV-2 finds a home in the body, particularly the gastrointestinal tract, “through viral reservoirs, where it continues to release spike protein and trigger inflammation,” Medical News Today reported.
Lead author of the study David Walt, PhD, Professor of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Hansjörg Wyss Professor Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, told The Guardian he “was motivated to carry out the study after earlier research by his colleagues detected genetic material from the COVID virus (viral RNA) in stool samples from children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (a rare but serious condition that often strikes around four weeks after catching COVID) as well as spike protein and a marker of gut leakiness in their blood.”
Long COVID—also known as long-haul COVID, post-COVID-19, or its technical name, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 or PASC—can involve health problems continuing weeks, months, or even years after a positive diagnosis, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Symptoms of long COVID, according to the researchers, include:
fatigue,
loss of smell,
memory loss,
gastrointestinal distress, and
shortness of breath.
“If someone could somehow get to that viral load and eliminate it, it might lead to resolution of symptoms,” Walt told the Boston Globe, which noted that the researchers may explore a clinical trial involving antiviral drugs for treatment of long COVID-19.
Clues from Earlier Studies on Long COVID-19
Medical conditions that persisted following a COVID-19 infection have been studied for some time. In fact, in an earlier study, Walt and others found children who developed a multisystem inflammation syndrome weeks after being infected by SARS-CoV-2, according to their 2021 paper published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, titled, “Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Is Driven by Zonulin-Dependent Loss of Gut Mucosal Barrier.”
Although these earlier studies provided clues, the cause of PASC remains unclear, the researchers noted. They planned to take a more precise look at PASC biology by using appropriate sampling and patient recruitment.
“Disentangling the complex biology of PASC will rely on the identification of biomarkers that enable classification of patient phenotypes. Here, we analyze plasma samples collected from PASC and COVID-19 patients to determine the levels of SARS-CoV-2 antigens and cytokines and identify a blood biomarker that appears in the majority of PASC patients,” the researchers wrote.
Finding a Marker of a Persistent Infection
The researchers used plasma samples from 63 people with a previous SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis (37 also had PASC), Medical News Today reported. Over a 12-month period, the researchers’ findings included:
Detection in 65% of PASC samples of full-length spike, S1 spike, and nucleocapsid throughout the year of testing.
Spike detected in 60% of PASC patient samples, and not found in the COVID-19 samples.
In an interview with Scientific American, bioengineer Zoe Swank PhD, post-doctoral researcher, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and co-author of the study, said, “Our main hypothesis is that the spike protein is not causing the symptoms, but it’s just a marker that is released because you still have infection of some cells with SARS-CoV-2.”
In that article, Swank shared the scientists’ intent to do more research involving hundreds of samples over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic from many hospitals and people.
COVID-19 Not the Only Virus That Hangs On
Having a long-haul COVID-19 marker is a “game-changer,” according to an infectious disease expert who was not involved in the study.
“There has not so far been a clear, objective marker that is measurable in the blood of people experiencing long COVID-19,” Michael Peluso, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine, University of California San Francisco, told Scientific American. “I hope their findings will hold up. It really would make a difference for a lot of people if a marker like this could be validated,” he added.
However, COVID-19 is not the only virus that could persist. Ebola also may linger in areas that skirt the immune system, such as the eye interior and central nervous system, according to a World Health Organization fact sheet.
Thus, medical laboratory leaders may want to follow the Brigham and Women’s Hospital research to see if the scientists validate their finding, discover a biomarker for long-haul COVID-19, and pursue a clinical trial for antiviral drugs. Such discoveries could have implications for how diagnostic professionals work with physicians to care for long COVID patients.
There are reports of phlebotomists refusing to draw monkeypox blood samples and social stigma surrounding the disease can affect who gets a medical laboratory test
Cases of monkeypox are increasing in the US—14,115 as of Aug. 19, up 1,400 from the prior week—and clinical laboratories around the country are bracing for a potential increase in monkeypox testing orders.
Several factors, however, are affecting the testing. Chief among them:
Lab workers refusing to take blood draws from potential monkeypox patients, and
Community clinics in some cities having to delay other care to deal with an onslaught of monkeypox test orders.
Here are five trends clinical laboratory leaders should be aware of that are influencing the state of monkeypox testing in the country.
Trend 1: Some Phlebotomists Refuse to Draw Possible Monkeypox Specimens
CNN reported that phlebotomists at two of the largest commercial laboratories—Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics—were either refusing or being told not to draw blood samples from suspected monkeypox patients.
“Labcorp and Quest don’t dispute that, in many cases, their phlebotomists are not taking blood from possible monkeypox patients,” according to CNN. “What remains unclear, after company statements and follow-ups from CNN, is whether the phlebotomists are refusing on their own to take blood or if it is the company policy that prevents them. The two testing giants say they’re reviewing their safety policies and procedures for their employees.”
In “Medical Laboratories Respond to Monkeypox Outbreak Using CDC-Developed Diagnostic Test,” Dark Daily noted that skin lesion swabbing, such as that necessary to perform the OrthopoxvirusPCR test, is the preferred method to check for monkeypox because of higher viral counts in the lesions. However, physicians may order follow-up blood tests for confirmed monkeypox patients, and suspected patients may need bloodwork as part of other routine care.
In an update posted on its website, Quest noted it has been testing swab specimens of skin lesions for monkeypox, but those swabs are performed by providers and not Quest. However, the company was also preparing to take blood draws of possible monkeypox patients in its patient service centers.
“Given that monkeypox has been declared a national public health emergency and the most recent CDC guidance, we are now implementing procedures to safely enable patients with suspected or confirmed monkeypox infection into our patient service sites for phlebotomy blood draws and other non-swab specimen collections,” Quest stated. “This approach will enable patients with suspected or confirmed monkeypox infections to receive additional testing they may need.”
Trend 2: Guidance Is Available to Help Lab Workers Avoid Monkeypox Infection
The CDC has posted guidance to maintain infection control around suspected monkeypox specimens. Among the steps noted by the agency:
Lesion specimens from patients suspected of having monkeypox will carry the highest quantity of the virus. When possible, lab workers that have a smallpox vaccination from within the last three years should handle these specimens. Smallpox vaccination also protects from monkeypox in many cases. Unvaccinated workers who test suspected monkeypox specimens need to take extra precautions, such as wearing a buttoned lab coat, gloves, and face protection, and avoiding splashes, the CDC stated.
Blood specimens draw from suspected monkeypox patients will have a low quantity of the virus. Lab workers testing these specimens do not need to be vaccinated for monkeypox, but standard precautions should be followed.
Before using automated testing platforms with suspected monkeypox specimens, labs should conduct a risk assessment to identify potential hazards.
Trend 3: Monkeypox Testing Gains an Early Social Stigma
Some people who need to be tested for monkeypox may be hesitant to seek out a medical laboratory or patient service center because of a stigma being attached to the disease.
Although it does not match the early hysteria associated with HIV infections in the 1980s—in a 1987 poll, 60% of respondents said AIDS patients should carry a card identifying them as such, Gallup noted—there have been clear instances where people and agencies have associated monkeypox infection with men having sex with other men.
“The focus for all countries must be engaging and empowering communities of men who have sex with men to reduce the risk of infection and onward transmission, to provide care for those infected, and to safeguard human rights and dignity,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, the Director-General at the World Health Organization, said in a July 27 media briefing.
Ghebreyesus added that while 98% of monkeypox infections have been among men who have sex with men, anyone can get the disease, including children.
“Stigma and discrimination can be as dangerous as any virus, and can fuel the outbreak,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD (above), Director-General at the World Health Organization (WHO), in a media briefing. Clinical laboratories would be wise to prepare for a marked increase in demand for monkeypox testing. (Photo Copyright: WHO/Christopher Black.)
“Men who have sex with men have been hit the hardest by monkeypox to date, but LGBTQ+ health advocates say improper messaging risks branding monkeypox as a ‘gay disease,’ eroding effective preventive measures and allowing the virus to spread,” Bloomberg Law reported.
For example, 66% of respondents either were not sure or did not believe there is a vaccine for monkeypox.
Trend 4: Workers Who Refuse to Test Patients for Monkeypox Face Possible Backlash
Some medical professionals have raised concerns about healthcare workers being unwilling to test monkeypox patients.
“This is absolutely inexcusable. It’s a grave dereliction of duty,” David Harvey, Executive Director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told CNN. The group represents sexually transmitted disease (STD) directors at public health departments in the US.
“For every single patient that walks [through] your door, you use universal precautions because every disease doesn’t have a phenotype or outward appearance, so you have to treat everyone exactly the same,” Garfield Clunie, MD, president of the National Medical Association and Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told Bloomberg Law. “You can’t treat someone differently because of their sexual orientation, or race, or gender, or for any other reason.”
Trend 5: Public Clinics Show Early Signs of Monkeypox Testing Pressure
A survey of 80 public health departments conducted by the National Coalition of STD Directors indicated that some sites may already be getting overwhelmed by demand for monkeypox testing.
According to the survey results, 79% of public health clinics saw an increased demand for monkeypox testing over the past four weeks. In a troubling aspect, 28% of clinics said they could not meet testing demand if it increases.
Further, 22% of clinics have reduced screenings for other STDs to prioritize monkeypox testing. Such moves likely delay patients from receiving other care they need.
Clinical laboratories may want to take note of the survey findings. The pressure public health clinics currently face could be a precursor to similar problems at labs if demand for monkeypox testing grows.
Experts say it is time ‘to restore our confidence in vaccines’ as many medical laboratories take steps to support testing for the polio virus
Clinical laboratories and microbiologists in the state of New York will want to know that, in July, a man in New York was diagnosed with polio and subsequently the virus was detected in the wastewater of two New York counties.
The area, Rockland County, N.Y., just north of New York City, was also at the forefront of a measles outbreak that occurred in 2018 and 2019. The outbreak was attributed to low vaccination rates within the community.
The unidentified, immunocompetent young man was admitted to a New York hospital after experiencing a low-grade fever, neck stiffness, back and abdominal pain, constipation, and lower extremity weakness. He eventually developed paralysis from the disease, which is irreversible.
Poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio, is a disabling and life-threatening disease that is caused by the poliovirus. Though it rarely surfaces in the United States, there is now confirmation of the first US case since 2013.
“The polio vaccine is safe and effective, protecting against this potentially debilitating disease, and it has been part of the backbone of required, routine childhood immunizations recommended by health officials and public health agencies nationwide,” said Mary T. Bassett, MD (left), Health Commissioner at the New York Department of Health, in a press release. Clinical laboratories and microbiologists in New York may want to prepare for an increase in vaccination requests. (Photo copyright: Time.)
Is Polio Back in America? Clinical Laboratories Will Want to Be Prepared
“I think it’s concerning because it can spread,” epidemiologist Walter Orenstein, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine told STAT. “If there are unvaccinated communities, it can cause a polio outbreak.”
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health experts are working diligently to discover how and where the infected individual contracted polio. The CDC website states that the risk for people who have received the polio vaccine is very low, but there is concern for those who have not received the recommended doses of the vaccine.
“Most of the US population has protection against polio because they were vaccinated during childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, there are unvaccinated people at risk,” the CDC noted. “Polio and its neurologic effects cannot be cured but can be prevented through vaccination.”
The US uses an injectable polio vaccine for the poliovirus which contains killed viruses. The vaccine “instructs” the immune system to recognize and combat the virus. This inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is administered to children as a shot in the arm or leg and is typically given in four separate doses.
“The inactivated polio vaccine we have is very effective and very safe and could have prevented this,” Orenstein told STAT. “We need to restore our confidence in vaccines.”
“Based on what we know about this case, and polio in general, the (New York) Department of Health strongly recommends that unvaccinated individuals get vaccinated or boosted with the FDA-approved IPV polio vaccine as soon as possible,” said Mary T. Bassett, MD, Health Commissioner at the New York Department of Health in a press release.
Poliovirus Found in Wastewater via Use of Gene Sequencing
Poliovirus is very contagious and is transmitted through person-to-person contact. The virus lives in an infected person’s throat and intestines and can contaminate food and water in unsanitary conditions. According to the CDC, typical symptoms of the illness include flu-like symptoms such as:
Sore throat
Fever
Tiredness
Nausea
Headache
Stomach pain
Most of these symptoms will disappear within five days, but polio can invade the nervous system and cause more serious complications, such as meningitis, paralysis, and even death.
After confirmation of the new case of polio, wastewater surveillance detected the presence of the poliovirus in Rockland and Orange counties, New York.
Wastewater analysis can uncover pathogens within a community and has been used in the fight against other infectious diseases, including:
“In some regards, wastewater is a public health dream scenario,” said Mark Siedner, MD, an infectious disease doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, in an interview with Fortune. “Everyone poops, and most people poop every day. It provides real-time data on infection rates. In that regard, it’s an extremely powerful tool, particularly good at detecting early warning signs. Before people get sick, we might get a signal.”
Wastewater analysis can provide insights regarding the types of viruses that people within a community are shedding and if the volume of those viruses are increasing. This information can provide scientists with an early marker for an outbreak of an illness that is on the verge of spreading.
Microbiologists and clinical laboratories should be aware of the specific types of infectious agents public health authorities are detecting in wastewater, even as they perform screening and diagnostic tests on their patients for similar infectious diseases.
Polio is Appearing Worldwide
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has announced that new cases of polio have been reported in Israel and the United Kingdom. These are countries where polio cases are extremely rare.
This indicates that microbiologists and clinical laboratories managers will want to be on constant alert for uncommon infectious diseases that may appear suddenly, even if those illnesses are rare. Accurate and immediate diagnoses of such infectious diseases could play a major role in triggering a public health response to control potential outbreaks while they are in their earlier stages.
Clinical laboratories continue to report positive COVID-19 tests for individuals that have been vaccinated and even previously infected with the same variant of the coronavirus
Researchers across the globe continue to study the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and its many variants. Their goals are to curb the spread of the disease and develop new therapies and treatments for optimal patient outcomes. Now, a study conducted by scientists at the University of Missouri (UM) provides deeper insight into the processes the virus uses to mutate and overpower the human immune system. These findings could lead to improved antivirals and clinical laboratory tests for COVID-19.
The UM team identified specific mutations occurring within the virus’ spike protein that help Omicron subvariants evade existing antibodies and create an infection. These mutations may explain why some people who have had previous COVID-19 infections and/or who are fully vaccinated continue to test positive for SARS-CoV-2, and why the virus continues to evolve.
“Omicron now has more than 130 sublineages and they have been here for quite a while. We are now just finally able to detect them and differentiate among them with this research,” said Kamlendra Singh, PhD, associate research professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at UM’s College of Veterinary Medicine, in a UM press release.
“Previous variants, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, contributed to many of the mutations occurring now with these Omicron variants. So, our research shows how the virus has evolved over time with new mutations,” he added.
“Throughout the pandemic, the [SARS-CoV-2] virus has continued to get smarter and smarter. Even with vaccines, it continues to find new ways to mutate and evade existing antibodies,” said Kamlendra Singh, PhD (above), Associate Research Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine at University of Missouri, in a UM press release. This research team’s findings may help clinical laboratories further develop their SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests. (Photo copyright: University of Missouri.)
Antibodies for One Variant, but Not for Another
The scientists began their investigation by researching online databases that track COVID-19 cases and analyzing the protein sequences from more than 10 million Omicron-related samples that were collected from around the world since November of last year.
They examined the available sequences, structures of spike/receptor and spike/antibody complexes of the samples, and then conducted molecular dynamics simulations. The team utilized 3D modeling to locate where mutations occur and created structures of the spike protein to determine how the mutations are affected by antibodies and vaccinations.
The researchers found that the Omicron variant continues to mutate and has become extremely efficient at adaptation. Reinfections are happening because many individuals do not possess the antibodies for the new subvariants that continue to develop.
“Vaccinated individuals, or those who have previously tested positive, may have the antibodies for one variant but not necessarily for any of the other variants,” Singh explained. “The various mutations may seem like only subtle differences, but they are very important.”
The UM scientists’ research shows it is possible to differentiate Omicron subvariants from each other and pinpoint how certain mutations might become problematic for patients. According to Singh, many people can be infected with multiple variants at the same time. He is hopeful that their work will make it possible for vaccines and other treatments to specifically target different strains of the virus.
Singh also believes that the coronavirus is most likely never going to disappear from society and that new variants and their sublineages will continue to appear and evolve.
“The ultimate solution going forward will likely be the development of small molecule, antiviral drugs that target parts of the virus that do not mutate,” Singh said. “While there is no vaccine for HIV, there are very effective antiviral drugs that help those infected live a healthy life, so hopefully the same can be true with COVID-19.”
Omicron Subvariants May Be Here to Stay
“I am proud of my team’s efforts, as we have identified specific mutations for various variants throughout the pandemic, and it feels good to be contributing to research that is assisting with the situation,” Singh said. “We will continue to help out, as there will surely be new variants in the future.”
Singh is also part of a team that developed a supplement called CoroQuil-Zn, which was designed to reduce a patient’s viral load after being infected with SARS-CoV-2. The drug is currently being used in parts of India and is awaiting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Clinical laboratories that perform antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 infections should be aware that the coronavirus will likely be moving among humans for many years to come. This recent research may aid in the development of new antivirals, treatments, and vaccines that target specific subvariants for the best patient outcomes.
