Science and Technology: How 2020 Changed the Role of Science in America and the World

Science and Technology:  How 2020 Changed the Role of Science in America and the World

Julie Ann Racino 

December 28, 2020

      In 2020, the public in America and Nations around the world faced the new coronavirus accompanied by lockdowns and Executive orders "which fundamentally changed the relationship of the electorate and the public". Compared to the Spanish flu, the common flu, the Asian and swine flu, other respiratory diseases, and even ebola epidemic, HIV-AIDS and the bubonic plague, the coronavirus became the common enemy that must be fought and eradicated.

       As we approach 2021, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been released through emergency use orders and the governments. Health care workers, emergency responders, those vulnerable to the virus due to age or underlying condition, and visibly, the government leaders have begun a "massive vaccination program" to stop the spread of the virus and its tolls in terms of hospitalizations, loss of life, economic and family life, and daily life disrupted by Covid-19.

        The virus effected everyone from celebrities, to hospital elite, to leaders of Nations, to seniors in nursing facilities, and those living in correctional facilities, housing and rehabilitation centers, and family households. In Italy, we were shocked early by the families entering the hospitals ill, and more than one family member actually dying from the virus! It was clear that while the government claimed control (issuing personal protective equipment, requiring masks and social distancing, stay-at-home orders) that the hospital and health care system "were not in control".

       Instead modern medicine did not have treatments readily available "that would stem the tide of death"!  However, patients could agree to be part of new clinical trials for the forthcoming vaccines. Government leaders positioned to lead the public through the crisis, and to assure that every American who would need one would have a ventilator at the "intensive care units". Health care in America had changed, and the World Health Organization (WHO) was criticized for responding too slow to the December 2019 outbreak in Wuhan, China. 

     Pub Med (online) published reports from treating physicians during the period when the vaccinations were being developed through clinical trials. These accounts described the medications used, different underlying conditions of the patients, responses of the patients, and the pathway to "sepsis and mass organ failure". President Trump himself proposed using a stockpile of hydrochloroquine (known for its use in malaria) and risperdone, for bacterial not viral use, was also tested for its secondary effects on patients. Eventually, Regeron developed a Covid-19 cocktail that President Trump himself was given at Walter Reed Army Hospital. 

        American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in its Special Issues did an exceptional job on underlying conditions (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, epilepsy), and chronic inflammation. Thus, the explanation for the "high comorbidity" and the high proportion of the general population effected prior to the coronavirus itself. 

           In December 2020, the hospital systems are reporting being overwhelmed, and preparing again for overflow outside the established care system; nurses and emergency personnel, tired and exhausted, were preparing for another post-holiday wave. The national news media with exceptional accounts of the virus and its toll, honored the health care workers and first responders, provided tons of medical information from Dr. Anthony Fauci (infectious diseases, federal government) to Dr. Scott Gottlieb (former Food and Drug Administration, Board Member of Pfizer), and memorialized the lives of the victims during 2020!  

          The Governors of the US states (e.g., Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York) and their public health directors stayed accessible to the public, described the situation daily with "health statistics", and answered all inquiries from daily activities to predictive futures. US states that did not control the public situation, eventually issued orders as other related crises (e.g., infections at poultry or meat facility) resulted in "shutdown and lockdowns" which ultimately resulted in critical economic situation in America. The struggle between government control and personal freedom never really came to the forefront in this health crisis, though Republicans and Democrats divided at mask wearing, social gatherings and economic and school reopenings. 

          We now await the Trump-Biden Administration transition and are delighted that Dr. Fauci will remain on the Biden team in 2021. We are expecting, a bit reluctantly, to be on the vaccine list for the end of January 2021 and will be following President-Elect Joe Biden who obtained his first vaccine innoculation this past week. Now, Joe Biden has indicated, similar to climate change, he will follow the scientists and we assure the public that we will do our utmost to assure that the best of medicine and science is available to the political decisionmakers who have been entrusted with our futures in America and the world. A big clue is if the political leaders say they are the health care leaders, indeed the same leaders will say they are the academic scientists. 

        We wish everyone a Blessed Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year 2021!

Postscript: Science and Technology in 2020

        2020 brought a renewal of the Space Age from the time of President John F. Kennedy Jr. to the privatization of Space X and the creation of a new Space Force in the US "under VP Michael Pence "(similar to US Air Force). For those of us who grew up with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), we were relieved at the plans to return to the moon (with a first USA woman on the moon) and plans to land on Mars (post the time of Mars Landrover). While planning elite astronauts for international space flights, the new "space billionaires" (visionaries) plan on the popularization of space flight within our lifetimes.  

        Of course, we were astounded at the ease of live communication between space astronauts and even children's groups in the science museums (e.g., experiments in space)! And, as expected, the global agencies did not see any need to revisit the terms of the International Space Station, featuring live video of takeoffs and landings. However, USA paying Russia to hop rides to ISS ("public policy") came under scrutiny in the new era post invasion of Russia of the Ukraine. We were delighted to learn more about Elon Musk (Tesla) and Richard Branson (Virgin), and their elite projects to transform how we live in this world and the larger Milky Way Galaxy. Our reservations are with private, small satellites (forming telecommunication's belts) which also can become space junk of the future!

         The new Nova programs featured original photos from early days of NASA, and Apollo mission was revisited in the Imax theaters of the science museums internationally. USA media was breached with features of the first women astronauts from India, and our teams of men and women astronauts in the USA were photographed in space, including accolades (e.g., US postage stamp; feature in Ithaca's Sciencenter; US White House) for early woman astronaut Sally Ride. Astronaut John Glenn of Ohio, of course, was still in the US Congress when we came back in! In the era of sustainability, reuse of the space capsules and new landings direct on ships began to change the shape of missions from Houston control in Texas and John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We look forward to the decades to come and agree... 3, 2, 1 liftoff!

Julie Ann Racino, Section on Science and Technology in Government, American Society for Public Administration, 2020-2021