Neil Murray, CEO of Impact Data Metrics outlines how the Covid-19 pandemic has given the public a very different perception of science and how the news cycle can be disingenuous to 'good science'.
News cycle
Necessity is the mother of invention. The breakthroughs in record time for Covid-19 vaccines are the latest testimony to what can be achieved. The accepted timeline for vaccine development is around 10 years. Pfizer/BioNtech completed the task in around 10 months, with Moderna and Oxford University/AstraZeneca not far behind. This is a truly remarkable success for the biotechnology industry and, by extension, the wider scientific community.
It’s possible to make the case that the global biotechs and academics working to discover and develop these vaccines have had a good pandemic. But what of science in broader terms and data science in particular? The picture is more mixed.