At a Crossroads: Reimagining science, engineering, and medicine—and its practitioners

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has cast a bright light on the importance of science and evidence (1). Epidemiologists have provided public health advice informed by experience with epidemics and are sharing best practices for halting the spread of the virus. Biomedical scientists are researching how the virus works, testing treatments, and racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. This work reinforces previous calls from the National Academies and others for strong investments in science and mathematics education; science, engineering, and medicine research; and the translation of new knowledge into products and processes that improve public health, spur economic growth, and maintain national security (2-4). Although its high level of contagion means that everyone is vulnerable to the virus, the pandemic has also shined a bright light on intractable inequalities in our society. Several months ago, we, along with others, advocated for release of COVID-19 case data by race, arguing that we could not understand the impact of the virus unless we could see how it affected communities differently. When data were finally made available, the disparities were clear. Elderly and low-income Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics are infected by and dying from the virus in disproportionate numbers. Ibram Kendi has shown that the African American community has been particularly hard hit because of structural racism, economic inequalities, and health disparities (5). To paraphrase others, these differences provided the kindling and police brutality the match for the widespread fire of racial Recent events have shined a bright light on intractable inequalities in US society. The science enterprise is far from immune. Although there has been progress, the science community can do much more. Image credit: Shutterstock/ Tverdokhlib.

The missing colours of chemistry

“…T he racial disparities that permeate society have become much more visible -particularly to those who typically have not suffered from such inequities. They have recently been highlighted by the increased profile of the Black Lives Matter movement and protests against police brutality, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been found to disproportionately affect certain communities, notably Black people 1 . Inequality and racism also prevail in scientific institutions -and chemistry is no exception.…”

A glimpse of social presence during an organic chemistry group activity

“…Of the 7% of bachelor's degrees earned by Black students, 2.66% were earned by Black women. Further, women and underrepresented minorities have been found to leave STEM majors at rates significantly higher than non-underrepresented minorities (Hrabowski, 2018;Seymour et al, 2019;Hrabowski et al, 2020;Suran, 2021).…”

Affirming NIH’s commitment to addressing structural racism in the biomedical research enterprise

“…As scientists, administrators, staff, and leaders at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), we take this opportunity to acknowledge that structural racism has been a chronic problem in our society, and biomedical science is far from free of its stain. The May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, the recent killings in Atlanta of primarily Asian American women, the racially motivated violent deaths of other people of color, and the health inequities highlighted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have brought into stark and disturbing focus the racial injustices that have been allowed to persist in the United States for more than four centuries (Hrabowski et al, 2020).…”