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Few aspects of life have been unchanged by the pandemic. While some effects, such as last spring’s shortages of toilet paper, flour, and grocery delivery slots, are now a thing of the past, backorders of lab supplies continue to this day. Researchers are paying more and waiting longer for items such as gloves, pipet tips, and reagents due to their use in testing for SARS-CoV-2, eating through funds and slowing research. The problem is so acute that some researchers say they’re concerned about hitting the milestones needed to advance their careers.
“My biggest fear as a junior assistant professor right now is that we’re going to lose a lot of people from this generation of science. . . . There’s going to be a lot of people in my cohort of assistant professors who just aren’t going to make it as a result of this,” says ...
