BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHERS CONFRONTING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a global challenge to be confronted by the biomedical community. This article aimed to explore how knowledgeable and competent researchers may contribute to fighting the pandemic, and to discuss the ethics and impact of this endeavor. Many medical researchers and in particular clinical practitioners are engaged in collecting new evidence and creating new knowledge by undertaking pandemic-related research. This research is frequently unplanned, and subsequently numerous obstacles to starting new but necessary studies must be overcome. To contribute research evidence in hard times represents a highly ethical move. Moreover, these new studies need ethical approvals, financial resources, and institutional frameworks. Another pandemic-related challenge is how to generate expert opinions during the period when solid evidence is missing. Unlike research studies providing necessary scientific evidence, expert opinions do not need ethical approvals or disclosures of competing interests. The apparent contrast of evidence-based versus opinion-based decision-making during the pandemic reconfirms that quality research studies have no alternatives at all times