Scientific American has dedicated this month’s magazine to the COvid-19 pandemic. It is indeed 2 years from the first lockdown measures in Europe and so much and so little seems to have changed.
Prompt by this, I have tried to identify the good and the bad things of these two years. On a personal level, I am very happy and still surprised that in the very beginning so many people were so willing to give up some personal freedoms and stayed home to “flatten the curve”. On the other hand, the delay on mask mandates even if for a good cause – to make sure that healthcare professionals had enough protective equipment -, was quite unbelievable. Moreover, I am still not sure what news were broadcasted in the west part of this country, that still to this day people don’t wear masks but thoroughly disinfect the shopping carts (contrary to the east side).
Coming back to the Scientific American list, here is a selected list of what they think has changed in two years of COVID-19 pandemics:
– Society felt that the common good is above individualism;
– Science and politics came together and it was made clear how each influence the other;
– Inequality got much worse: “The poor, no matter where they live, suffer the greatest lasting toll”
– Journalists grasped the concept that “absence of evidence is no evidence of absence”;
– Science started happening live and results no longer need to be completely polished before being made public;
– COVID set off a boom in diagnostics, based on PCR technology;
– American Public Health Revealed its fragility;
– The mRNA technology was the greatest success of the pandemics;
– Long haulers called attention to chronic illness;
– Nasal spray preventives went into development;
– Lockdowns showed the promise of cities with fewer cars;
– Work changed forever.
Science is not glamorous 