Abstract
The year 2020 was profoundly marked by the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2, causing COVID-19, which represents the greatest pandemic of the 21st century until now, and a major challenge for virologists in the scientific and medical communities. Increased numbers of SARS-CoV-2 infection all over the world imposed social and travel restrictions, including avoidance of face-to-face scientific meetings. Therefore, for the first time in history, the 2020 edition of the Brazilian Society of Virology (SBV) congress was totally online. Despite the challenge of the new format, the Brazilian society board and collaborators were successful in virtually congregating more than 921 attendees, which was the greatest SBV participant number ever reached. Seminal talks from prominent national and international researchers were presented every night, during a week, and included discussions about environmental, basic, animal, human, plant and invertebrate virology. A special roundtable debated exclusively new data and perspectives regarding COVID-19 by some of the greatest Brazilian virologists. Women scientists were very well represented in another special roundtable called “Young Women Inspiring Research”, which was one of the most viewed and commented section during the meeting, given the extraordinary quality of the presented work. Finally, SBV offered the Helio Gelli Pereira award for one graduate and one undergraduate student, which has also been a fruitful collaboration between the society and Viruses journal. The annual SBV meeting has, therefore, reached its goals to inspire young scientists, stimulate high-quality scientific discussion and to encourage global collaboration between virologists.
Highlights
The Brazilian Society of Virology (SBV) represents and congregates professionals and students enrolled in different areas of the virology field, aiming to promote human, animal and plant health; stimulate the development of alternative technologies; preserve the environment and promote sustainable development; increment the knowledge regarding viral wealth and diversity; encourage collaboration between national and international scientific institutions; and disseminate science to the general public
Despite the challenge of a new format, this meeting had the highest number of attendees, seeking to discuss high-quality science and recent advances in the overall virology fields, especially regarding COVID-19
The 31st Brazilian Society for Virology Meeting represented a big but fortunate challenge to the directory board, scientific committee and society members, given the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity to host an event completely online
Summary
The Brazilian Society of Virology (SBV) represents and congregates professionals and students enrolled in different areas of the virology field, aiming to promote human, animal and plant health; stimulate the development of alternative technologies; preserve the environment and promote sustainable development; increment the knowledge regarding viral wealth and diversity; encourage collaboration between national and international scientific institutions; and disseminate science to the general public. Despite the challenge of a new format, this meeting had the highest number of attendees, seeking to discuss high-quality science and recent advances in the overall virology fields, especially regarding COVID-19. The SBV annual meeting fulfilled the major goal of a scientific society in promoting high-quality science discussion and stimulating the development and increase of well-qualified human resources committed to the advancement of science
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