Will COVID-19 change science?

In a series of news articles in the coming months, "Science" magazine will consider how a new normal will emerge in the scientific world

Although the past does not necessarily predict the future, the history of the epidemic illustrates how changes unfolded

Past epidemics have prompted scientists and doctors to reconsider everything from their understanding of the disease to the way they communicate

However, the mere record of these numbers highlights how medicine has repositioned in the face of the plague

In the era when the plague was raging, people conducted more systematic research on infectious diseases and gave birth to a new >

The plague and subsequent epidemics also coincided with the rise of epidemiology and public health disciplines, although some historians questioned whether disease has always been a driving factor

Cholera, caused by a bacterium in the water, destroyed New York and other areas in the 19th century

At the same time, the effort to crack the disease continues: Although in the mid-nineteenth century, there were still a small number of doctors who regarded bacteria as the culprit, disease "is no longer an event in the drama of moral choice and spiritual salvation" but "The result of the interaction between humans and the environment," Rosenberg wrote

The wonderful combination of memory and forgetting runs through many epidemics

Barnes said that in contrast, the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s left a huge impact

It is through this perspective that Barnes and other historians consider the potential scientific legacy of COVID-19

After COVID-19, will researchers re-adjust their research content and working methods, which may accelerate the changes that have already taken place? Or, will Snowden’s “social amnesia” be eager to make a big deal? Popularity is left behind and intensified? The answer will be revealed in a few decades