CERN director: Danger that science is forgotten after Covid pandemic
Fabiola Gianotti, the director-general of scientific research center CERN, that she fears that science could largely be forgotten following the coronavirus pandemic.
“Of course there is a danger, the danger that once the crisis [is] over science is put back into its little box or in a drawer to be taken out again when the next crisis comes and that’s not sustainable, that’s not the way to address big challenges,” Gianotti told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on Friday at the annual Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of Lake Como in Italy.
However, she believed a lot had been learned from the pandemic and that the world was not the same. Gianotti hoped the world would not revert to the “old normal” but that a “new normality” would emerge, building on positive principles that had come out of this crisis, such as collaboration.
To ensure this collaboration continued, particularly in light of the debate over coronavirus vaccine patent waivers, Gianotti said it was important to have a dialogue between governments and the private sector.
Both the Biden administration and the European Parliament have backed the waiving of intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, in order to give countries more affordable access. However, pharmaceutical lobbyists have campaigned against the proposed waivers.
