But scientists must also introspect and address current and future challenges with grater vigour while learning from this year. Testing now needs to move from an identification of positive individuals and their contacts to a public health effort. Clinical trials, which are carefully structured, discover something called the efficacy, as distinct from the effectiveness, of a vaccine. Yet, science and technology, important for both society and the economy, usually measures success in time-scales of years, if not decades. This changed attitude must stay and not swing back into a disconnect between science and society.

Source: Hindustan Times December 28, 2020 16:25 UTC