Postdigital Research in the Time of Covid-19

Abstract

The First 80 Days of Covid-19 The first case of the coronavirus disease, Covid-19, was officially reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019 (World Health Organization 2020a) The coronavirus disease had initially been compared with an ordinary flu, and Dr Li Wenliang, who raised the alarm in the early days of the outbreak, was investigated by the Chinese police and the Public Security Bureau for ‘spreading rumours’ Yet it soon became obvious that Covid-19 is far more dangerous than the flu, and Dr Li Wenliang, aged 33, died of the infection on 7 February 2020 (Hegarty 2020) In spite of their harsh initial reactions to Dr Li Wenliang’s alleged whistleblowing, Chinese authorities soon exhibited remarkable determination in containing the virus By late January, they quarantined the city of Wuhan (11 million inhabitants) and several other areas affecting over 60 million of people ‘Since February 18, China has reported the number of recovered cases is vastly outpacing the number of new confirmed cases each day ’ (Roper 2020) In the meantime, the coronavirus has crossed the borders of China, and Western countries have been much slower in their response On 11 March, the World Health Organization ‘declared COVID-19 a pandemic, pointing to the over 118,000 cases of the coronavirus illness in over 110 countries and territories around the world and the sustained risk of further global spread’ (Ducharme 2020) and on 13 March, ‘[i] nternational health officials said Friday that Europe has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, as the continent is now producing more new cases each day than China did at the height of its crisis’ (Coote and Jacobson 2020) In popular media, the Covid-19 pandemic has started an infodemic of unprecedented scale;fake news and bullshit flourish alongside credible information from sources such as the World Health Organization In the context of research, the Covid-19 pandemic has initiated historically unprecedented levels of collaboration and openness, prompting some authors to suggest that ‘[w] hen the story of the coronavirus (2019-nCOV) is finally written, it might well become a template for the utopian dream of open science — where research data is shared freely, unrestrained by competition, paywalls and patents’ (Crowe 2020) Worldwide closures of schools and universities have pushed millions of students and teachers online, bringing decades of experience in the field under the public eye (Bates 2020) Commentators compare Chinese and Western responses to the crisis, often under bombastic titles such as ‘Coronavirus and the Clash of Civilizations’ (Macaes 2020) Political scientists discuss whether the pandemic is an argument for total dismissal of capitalism or just a passing aberration in its functioning (Roberts 2020) Economists advise us to prepare the new recession (Elliott 2020) Sociologists see worldwide border closures as an anti-globalization experiment (Peters et al 2020), and philosophers go back to questions pertaining to human nature Worldwide governments are responding in radically different ways—the government of Montenegro has closed down the whole country before it registered the first patient within its borders (World Health Organization 2020b), while the UK has opted for a laissez faire approach which is hoped to result in herd immunity (Dunn and Kahn 2020) From official news to social networks, everyone and anyone has something to contribute to these debates, creating an infodemic which will be analysed long after Covid-19 is gone As I write these words on 16 March 2020 from self-isolation in my flat in Zagreb, Croatia, the future of the pandemic is unclear We have no idea what percentage of the global population will be affected by the virus, whether the virus will mutate, how many people the virus might kill, and what might happen with our politics and economy after the pandemic is gone At this point, we need to develop immediate measures to protect ourselves individually and collectively—weed out reliable information, self-isolate, reduce panic, develop educated guesses and emergency plans However, these urgent measures cannot arrive from thin air, and it is just as important to step back and take a birds-eye, longue duree view at the pandemic While doctors, nurses, politicians, food suppliers, and many other brave people self-sacrifice to support our daily survival, this editorial argues that academics have a unique opportunity, and a moral duty, to immediately start conducting in-depth studies of current events [truncated]