Biden is ending COVID emergency declarations. But the health care worker crisis continues.

The Biden administration recently announced that it will end the COVID-associated national and public health emergencies on May 11. That means stopping payments for COVID-19 tests and vaccines for some Americans, depending on their insurance status, other people losing benefits such as Medicaid, and some hospitals receiving less funding — placing higher burdens on our already depleted health care workforce. The pandemic has exacerbated many chronic challenges for the U.S. health system, including the shortage, burnout and inequitable distribution of health care workers. More than 230,000 health care providers left the profession in the first two years of the pandemic alone.