How the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts Lives of Life Scientists

Abstract

The coronavirus has caused a pervading disaster worldwide. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic is not a crisis but a catastrophe, facing the dramatic global increase in morbidity and mortality rates, and the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has disrupted virtually everyone's daily life. While the pandemic is having massive economic and environmental impacts, COVID-19 has also posed an unprecedented challenge to the scientific community. Thus, basic research and clinical investigations are being performed “at full speed” to explore the biology and evolution of SARS-CoV-2, evaluate the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the disease, elucidate host responses and host genetics, mitigate or prevent complications, and develop and test potential therapies. Until April 2020, more than 1,000 clinical studies worldwide pertaining COVID-19 were recorded.[ 1 ] As a result of national and international activities and joint ventures, several anti-COVID-19 vaccines have been developed that have been or are being approved by the respective regulatory authorities and now available for mass-scale immunization of the population. Apart from these activities and achievements, throughout the pandemic, many individual scientists have experienced a pressure to understand, mitigate, and cure COVID-19 or, at least, to provide a personal contribution in their field of expertise.[ 2 ] Interestingly, Korbel and Stegle reported in a survey assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on life scientists that approximately 20% of the respondents indicated that they shifted their research focus with the aim to combat COVID-19.[ 3 ] Publication History Received: 18 December 2020 Accepted: 19 December 2020 Article published online: 15 February 2021 © 2021. Thieme. All rights reserved. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

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