Thinking out loud: how science faces crises

FEDERICO FUCHS WIGHTMAN; EZEQUIEL PETRILLO; ANABELLA SREBROW

The Biochemist

Portland Press

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2021

In this essay, we try to analyse the role taken by the scientific community during the current COVID-19 pandemic, including its strengths, flaws and accomplishments. We further consider a wider scenario of potential crises, suggesting preparations and improvements that our system can explore looking towards them, both as prevention and as damage-control when crises emerge. Scrutinizing the role of science in a broad manner can be beneficial for countless fields, can help orientate research and provide better tools for scientists as well as better solutions for society.The current pandemic context has forced a lot of attention on the scientific community and its work. Numerous articles have addressed issues that range from patents and intellectual property to fair vaccine distribution, questioning many aspects regarding how science is carried out and how it is connected to the rest of society. We consider our analysis could add a fresh, moderate, and thorough view with relation to some of these topics.Although aimed mainly at the scientific community, the article can be easily read and understood by a more general audience since it contains minimal jargon.