This contamination-free manner of greeting with your feet went round the world as the ‘Wuhan shake’. | Image: Angelika Annen

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people in Switzerland have been called upon to assume personal responsibility for their actions – more than ever before. Those belonging to high-risk groups cannot protect themselves properly if those around them don’t maintain social distancing. Personally, I would prefer to have clear, generally applicable rules to tell me when I should wear a mask, and when not; whether I can hug my friends or not; and whether or not it’s safe to pull up another chair to a table if we still keep the necessary distance.

When we want clarity in such matters, we look to scientists for advice. But they cannot shield us from uncertainty either. At the beginning of the crisis, they were at best only able to guess the infection risk from schoolchildren. And tests are still needed to ascertain how the course of the disease might be mitigated. We still don’t know how long immunity might last among those who have survived the disease. What’s more, scientists have been compelled to share their findings with the public while still debating the quality of their studies among their expert colleagues.

There were also uncertainties when planning this issue of Horizons. It soon became clear that the Covid-19 crisis had to be a focus point, but we also had to ask ourselves: What can we add to the existing broad spectrum of reports in the media? What aspects might still interest our readers, given that the magazine would only appear some four months after our first editorial meeting? And given the reigning situation, what criticism of current research might be justified?

Then, suddenly, the importance of personal responsibility became clear. In confusing times like these, when even small decisions can have big consequences, we simply can’t wait for someone to give us all the answers. We have to assume responsibility ourselves. At Horizons, we are following this precept in areas where we are competent to do so. In this issue, we assess how researchers have measured up in the crisis, and what we might learn from it for the benefit of science.