by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This BBC report asks the question, “Is the coronavirus lockdown an opportunity for scientific research?”
To me, the answer is definitely, “Yes.”
As the report discusses, and as we have commented on, the marked decrease in human activity during the lockdown has allowed scientists to have new insights in the fields of seismology, marine sciences, and air pollution. In addition, it has increased scientific collaboration using the internet and various platforms, and allowed increased “citizen science” because people are sheltering in place, where they can observe and report on insect life, bird life, and plants, among other things in their yards, to scientists conducting research in these areas.
Most importantly, I think, is that the lockdown constitutes an “experiment of nature” where multiple topics can be studied in a wide variety of fields with the experimental intervention–a novel coronavirus pandemic, with a global lockdown in human activity including much of the global economy–being one that could never be planned but now has happened.
In political science, for example, researchers will be able to compare the effects of different political structures and different leadership styles on both economics and on coronavirus death rates. In Denmark, for example, the coronavirus death rate is half that in the U.S., lower than that in nearby Sweden, and the unemployment rate is 5%. Children are returning to school.
In economics, the “dismal science,” the costs of different national approaches to handling the coronavirus pandemic will provide fodder for PhD theses and think tank study for years if not decades. In public health, the effectiveness of different strategies for dealing with a novel coronavirus is already apparent. Unfortunately, in medicine and virology much has been learned about dealing with a new disease with no specific treatment, only supportive treatment, and as of yet no vaccine and no cure.
And in Georgia, motor vehicle safety experts will be able to compare the crash, injury, and mortality rates between the 16,000 Georgia teens getting their drivers licenses without a road test compared to those who did have to take the road test earlier in the year.
I’m sure there are many more topics that can be investigated due to the unfortunate opportunity created for scientific research by the coronavirus epidemic.
