Researcher contracts under strain as economic recession looms
Covid-19 worsens the already precarious scenario for scientists on short-term contracts
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the need for research has perhaps never been so evident. Faced with an unknown enemy, we are relying on researchers to produce vaccines, antibody tests and teach us more about how to tackle this new virus.
“Scientists are given very little credit for the work that they have done in such a short period of time,” says Prof Mary Anne O’Connell, an Irish senior research group leader in molecular biology working at CEITEC (the Central European Institute of Technology) in the Czech Republic. Her research laboratory was among many that volunteered to conduct tests for Covid-19 when the virus first struck.
“Scientists have isolated Covid-19, sequenced it, studied it in different cell lines under different conditions. Currently they are working to develop a vaccine against it and if that is not possible to find, they will find some drugs that will lessen its impact on patients,” she says.