Let’s set an example for the rest of the world and work together to make it through this crisis. This program pairs me with virtual classrooms from around the world where I can share my research with young students.Ībove all it is important to stay safe. I have recently signed up for the platform Skype A Scientist. With every school in the country shut down, virtual education has been called into action to maintain a standard of education during this lockdown. Testing is the way we get more people into quarantine and get people to treatment faster.

If you have the time and the skillset, please consider volunteering. In fact, our current postdoc and I are currently in the process of setting up volunteer time to help run tests at the local DHEC office here in Columbia, SC. For someone like me, in the prime of my pipetting career, we can go to our local DHEC office and volunteer as scientists to help transcribe data and run COVID-19 diagnostic tests. However, I think we can be doing more as scientists. The Forbes article highlights initiatives such as Crowdfight COVID-19 and the COVID-19 Pandemic Shareable Scientist Response Database. This to me is the most important one of them all. I will let you read the article in its entirety between episodes of Tiger King, but I wanted to highlight a few points that I hope catch your attention. A recent article by Forbes listed 10 ways that scientists can help during this crisis. It certainly is a difficult time for scientists, but in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic we are the most valuable worker available to the world.

The most notable (and relatable) story was about a 4th year PhD student at Vanderbilt University who had to “relocate” a dedicated analysis computer to her apartment to continue her stringent tissue analysis. An article published in the New York Times highlighted several stories from around the world about how scientists are adapting to these tough times. In response to this, I have seen an amazing effort by scientists trying to make the most of their dire situation. Young PhD students talking about how entire animal colonies had to be euthanized or months-long experiments being cut short and almost completely losing outcome measurements. I have seen many stories that have shown the difficult reality that is being a researcher outside of infectious diseases these days.

As a 5th year PhD student, this was definitely not the challenge I was expecting to be my last hurdle in earning my PhD. By now the majority of academic STEM researchers have shut down their labs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skype a scientist