The Pandemic Issue

PLACES — PHILANTHROPISTS — CELEBRITIES — WHISTLEBLOWERS — COMPANIES — MEDIA — PRODUCTS — POLITICIANS — SCIENTISTS — ACTIONS JUNE 2020 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue Photos taken by Christophe Maut while in quarantine in Paris, France 2 3 Editors’ note: In the spirit of hope and resilience, we present GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue, in which we explore big-picture ways that science innovation and communication can usher in a more equitable, more progress-oriented, and safer world. This issue is a collaboration among the science outlet leapsmag, the impact and engagement company GOOD, GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue and the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program. The GOOD10 format explores fundamental issues facing humanity through the lenses of ten forces pushing the needle toward progress: PLACES, PHILANTHROPISTS, CELEBRITIES, WHISTLEBLOWERS COMPANIES — MEDIA — PRODUCTS — POLITICIANS — SCIENTISTS — ACTIONS. Across these categories, we seek to present unexpected and encouraging paradigms emerging from this historic crisis. Six months after discovery of the novel coronavirus, we are beginning to see hints of what the future may hold. This edition is meant to demonstrate that even—or especially—in the face of a global calamity, creative minds across science and society are working together to overcome our world’s fragility. Our vulnerabilities, both medically and economically, have always existed, but the virus brought them into sharp relief. While it may seem impossible to imagine a sunny future on the other side, we hope the enclosed collection offers a glimpse over seemingly insurmountable obstacles, revealing new horizons ahead. Sincerely, Aaron F. Mertz, Ph.D. Director Aspen Institute Science & Society Program Kira Peikoff, M.S. Editor-in-Chief leapsmag Gabriel Reilich Editor-in-Chief GOOD 4 5 Right Now 6 Media: 1a Places: Isaac Asimov on the History of 55 Lessons Learned About Infectious Disease—And How Science Communication Humanity Learned To Fight Back Around the World 7 Products: GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue 1b Quarantining Our Way Will COVID-19 Pave the Way Into Outer Space For DIY Precision Medicine? 2 Philanthropists: 8 Politicians: An Exclusive Interview with Will the Pandemic Propel STEM Wendy Schmidt about Science Experts to Political Power? in the Pandemic Era A New Future 3 Celebrities: 9 Scientists: Neil deGrasse Tyson Wants Would a Broad-Spectrum Celebrities to Promote Scientists Antiviral Drug Stop the Pandemic? 4 Whistleblowers: The Science Sleuths Holding 10a Actions: Fraudulent Research Accountable Pseudoscience Is Rampant: How Not to Fall for It Paradigm Shift 5 Companies: 10b How COVID-19 Could Usher The Biggest Challenge for in a New Age of Collective a COVID-19 Vaccine Drug Discovery 6 7 Editing Writing Illustrators who donated their Aaron Mertz Damon Brown work for the United Nations Kira Peikoff Amy Odell COVID-19 Creative Response: Gabriel Reilich Kenneth Miller Pang Ying Hui Isaac Asimov Russell Tate Art Direction & Design Linda Marsa Samuel Rodriguez Tatiana Cárdenas-Mejía Randy Dotinga Guilherme Santiago Bob Roehr Aashti Miller David Cox GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue Front & Back Covers Visuals For partnership Illustration by Tonje Thielsen opportunities Leonardo Santamaria Pexel please contact Flickr Commons [email protected] Title typography by Patrick Wassman [email protected] Tatiana Cárdenas-Mejía Unsplash based on Ferrite Core DX Rian Devos by Froyo Tam Dana Edmunds Schmidt Ocean Institute Delvinhair Productions Fonts Dan Deitch Feritte Core DX Elizabeth Solaka Degular Michel & Co Photography ITC Clearface iStock Roboto Mono Nicholas Law Roboto Ailish Beadle Work Sans Ray Domzalski Jr. Máté Orobej Support for leapsmag comes from Dana Kim Support for the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program comes from Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Charitable Trust Rick Stamberger 8 9 GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue 10 11 GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue 12 13 We collected over 50 pandemic-generated 1a lessons in science communication from around the world from members of the Aspen Global Congress on Scientifc Tinking & Action. These insights offer local experts’ best practices for communicating about a global health crisis with GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue the public in nuanced and regionally speciﬁc ways. Places: = Contributing countries 55 Lessons Learned About Science Communication Around the World Compiled by Aaron Mertz 14 PLACES: 55 Lessons Learned About Science 15 Communication Around the World Senegal Ukraine Australia Nigeria India Is the messenger as important as the Ukraine started quarantine on March 25, 2020 Australia has … so far … come through COVID-19 has exposed the need to diversify the approaches and languages used The clamp downs, the lock downs, message? Pandemics such as COVID-19 when there were only 10 cases of COVID-19. the coronavirus pandemic without to communicate science. In Science Communication Hub Nigeria and African the prayers were all tried and the food of online misinformation And already on May 22 the quarantine was suffering the appalling fgures seen Science Literacy Network, our scientists and fellows are using local languages Lamps were lit, plates banged, and underlie the critical need to elevate weakened and economic recovery began. Kyiv elsewhere: Australia’s death rate per to debunk science misconceptions and disinformation about COVID-19 through fowers were showered from skies the voices of African science leaders. Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s address “Don’t wander million currently stands at 4, compared written articles, myth busters, and weekly webinars streamed live on Facebook Millions were spent, sugar pills were African communities have talented ex- the streets” worked well in the capital, the with 300 deaths per million in the and YouTube. In addition to disseminating good science, this approach has made dispensed, grandmas soups concocted perts they can rely on to access reliable most populated city. We also managed to U.S.A.; 542 in the UK; and a horrifying it easier for us to understand how local communities view science and scientists, Herbs were boiled and breathing taught information based on facts, if only the develop our own PCR tests within two weeks. 800+ in Belgium. Australia is not alone which in turn enables us to deliver content appropriate to these communities. Alas nothing worked, they all came to right platforms are provided to them. I managed to provide comments on the origins in achieving such relatively low fgures, naught Not only do we need to share the right of the new strain of coronavirus to the leaders but in Australia it does seem to be Mahmoud Bukar Maina Millions walked, hundreds died. information and understand our target of public opinion and it helped to prevent thanks to a fairly (but not perfect) early Founder, All nation builders migrating to home audiences, we must pay close attention conspiracy theories and to stop the panic. intervention to stop infections through Science Communication Hub Nigeria villages to those who deliver our messages, Aspen Institute Kyiv organized a series of border controls and lockdowns, sup- The rulers were deaf, the nation was when planning any communication online events and activities to inform society ported by a largely cooperative public. blind to one of the longest shut downs strategies. about the pandemic, to help with medical While early communication efforts by of its kind! supplies, and to assist the needy. In general, governments were marked by contra- But nothing worked, neither the herbs Fara Ndiaye the COVID-19 pandemic exposed all the dictions and confusion, one success Cameroon nor the sugar pills or the urine of the GOOD10: The Pandemic Issue Czech Republic Deputy Executive Director, shortcomings and bottlenecks of the country’s has been the national broadcaster, the mother cow! Speak Up Africa medical sphere. The positive outcome is that Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in The pandemic has recalled the vital role of 1,300 million Indians abandoned to their It is not a secret in the world of science science communication in times of crisis. everybody learned about PCR and realized spreading factual information through a communication that, for many, accepting fate now! how important good science is for society. range of media platforms. In particular Africa in general and Cameroon in particular the facts has little to do with facts have been spared for the moment from the are the activities of Norman Swan, pre- themselves. This quiet truth has been Narendra Nayak Nataliya Shulga senter of ABC Radio National’s Health catastrophe so feared by the whole world. President, brought out into the spotlight even more This stems from the good collaboration among Brazil CEO, Report, who has become a key voice so now during the pandemic. Many of us Federation of Indian Ukrainian Science Club of coronavirus information. His daily media, decision makers, and researchers who Rationalist Associations received the lesson that we must com- have positively infuenced the apprehension The frst lesson from the current CoronaCast podcast quickly became municate with the human frst before we of the threats by the general public as well as pandemic for science communica- one of the most downloaded science try communicating the science to them. their behavior, which is a determining factor tion in Brazil is that there is no such podcasts around the world, and though for the effciency of the response. thing as redundancy. It doesn’t matter presentations were not without dire Claire Klingenberg

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