Nature: Science in 2020 under the sign of the Corona virus for better or worse

"Despite the disruptions that the corona virus is creating in all areas of life - it seems that in the field of virus research there has been very rapid progress, as has not been the case with any other virus so far" was stated in the year's summary article of one of the important scientific journals

Nature summarizes the year 2020 in a comprehensive article on the consequences of the corona epidemic on the world of science.   

At the beginning of the article, the people of the magazine explain: One event dominated the year 2020: a previously unknown deadly virus wreaked havoc around the world, killing more than 1.5 million people, infecting many more and causing economic devastation.

Although there were other newsworthy research developments in 2020, the development of science as a whole was remarkable. The speed of the spread of the corona virus was only mapped to the pace of scientific insights. Almost as soon as SARS-CoV-2 was discovered, research groups around the world began investigating its biology and other groups were developing diagnostic tests or investigating what public health measures should be taken to control the epidemic. Scientists have also rushed to find treatments and create vaccines that can overcome the virus. "We've never progressed so quickly with any other infectious agent," says virologist Theodora Hatziano at Rockefeller University in New York.

It should be noted that the long-term effects of the vaccine include not only the very rapid development of the vaccine, but also the innovation of using mRNA to give instructions to the body, which may be reflected in rapid progress in other fields of medicine, including gene therapy for cancer.

But there were very large parts of science in which disruptions occurred. The editors of Nature write that the epidemic also affected the personal and work lives of the researchers. Many of those not researching the virus or its impact have had their projects delayed, careers put on hold and research funding damaged.

According to them, since the Second World War, scientific research has not known such widespread disruption. As the virus began to spread across countries, many universities closed their campuses in March. The laboratories stopped all but the most essential experiments, the field work was canceled and conferences became virtual.

In many areas that are not directly related to the problem, projects and progress have slowed down a lot. Suddenly forced to work from home, the researchers found their lives different, often struggling with family care and limited access to resources such as libraries. Many students also found themselves without field or laboratory data they needed to complete their degrees. The closing of the skies made job searches much more difficult.

Women were particularly affected - mainly mothers, but also researchers at the beginning of their careers and scientists from other underrepresented groups for whom the epidemic intensified factors that already made it difficult for them to participate in scientific research. A survey of 3,345 academics in Brazil in April and May found that black women, as well as mothers of all ethnicities, reported the greatest drop in work productivity during the pandemic, as measured by their ability to submit research papers and meet deadlines. "The results could be similar in other countries, without a doubt," says lead researcher Fernanda Staniscuaski, a plant biologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre.

Governments around the world responded in different ways, some providing financial support to higher education and research-intensive industries. Australia, for example, dedicated $2021 billion to academic research in 2.3. In the US, however, research did not get to be part of the $XNUMX trillion economic rescue plan.

Although many campuses have returned and opened by August, there are also many students who cannot come because of infection. In countries with widespread outbreaks such as India and Brazil, the campuses did not open at all (also in Israel).

In conclusion, they write, because there were also some bright spots. Some of the international academic collaborations have increased. Researchers began to share data openly, and many published their work on pre-publication servers; And most scientific journal publishers have made their COVID articles free to read. Research culture has also moved away, at least temporarily, from emphasizing productivity to discussing broader issues such as work-life balance. "I hope that the positive changes caused by the epidemic can remain," says Xin Xu, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, UK, who studies international research patterns.

To the full article

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