STRIDES IN MEDICAL
The world health community takes on a new pandemic BY JOHN D. LOIKE & SALOMON AMAR Guest Columnists from 'The Scientist' magazine
hile scientific misinformation from social media and from high-profile published papers has spread like wildfire in these past four months, there has also been an astoundingly rapid dissemination of validated scientific research published since the first case of COVID-19 was reported. Under normal conditions, scientific research is meant to be a slow, peer-reviewed, and calculated process of developing and testing a hypothesis, reporting the answers, and, finally, waiting for the scientific community to corroborate or disprove the findings. We are experiencing unprecedented times, and the scientific community has stepped up to address this pandemic.
measure the level of antibody titers that should protect individuals from infections; 4) testing treatments and cures; and 5) conducting clinical trials of vaccines.
In an incredibly short time, scientists at research universities and biotech companies have achieved remarkable successes regarding the first three milestones and have made impressive achievements in the latter two milestones that will hopefully lead to cures and vaccines. Despite the parallel dissemination of scientific misinformation, this progress is still a testament to the machinery of science and the passion of scientists. Comparing the timelines of COVID-19 accomplishments to those of There are many critical research milestones previous RNA virus pandemics highlights just that have been either achieved or in active how rapidly research has moved. development and reported in thousands of papers published about the coronavirus pan- For example, acquired immune deficiency syndemic. These include: 1) deciphering the ge- drome (AIDS) was a term first used by the US netic code of the virus and how it infects cells; Center for Disease Control on September 24, 2) developing accurate assays to detect the vi- 1982, almost 18 months after the first cited rerus in people; 3) developing accurate assays to port (June 5, 1981) of five AIDS patients. And
HEALTH MAGAZINE | FALL 2020
