In 2020, Covid virus— a black swan— wreaked havoc across the globe, killing more than 1.5 million people, infecting many more and causing economic devastation. And although research developments progressed very fast in 2020, the pandemic set the course of science afire.
The coronavirus spread. And as fast did the scientists, researchers and public health activists move. No sooner did was SARS-CoV-2 discovered, research groups worldwide started researching its biology, developed rapid diagnostic tests for diagnosis; assessed the pluses and minuses of public-health measures to control its spread. Suddenly several drugs flooded the market, and many were mass-used without scientific evidence.
I spoke on the politics of science in a pandemic on the third day of the 8th National Bioethics Conference.
