No doubt, this pandemic is the most important and serious issue for the whole world. However - Are the dominant impacts of COVID-19 on the preferences in favour of related research and related publications going to distract many researchers from some of the other distantly COVID-19 related but critically significant research areas?
I agree with that very much, because we notice that researchers are heading towards it, and this is wrong because there are many vital research topics that pose a global concern that should not be neglected or underestimated. Also, some of these research topics are related to issues that have a major impact on public health and the environment globally, and sometimes cause significant health and economic losses. I began to notice that we began to deal with the rest of the pathogens as if they were friendly and simple, and this is wrong because by neglecting the danger inherent in many of these cases, we may expose humanity to future epidemics, which may be more dangerous than this epidemic.
Dear Prof. Khondkar!
You raised a key point. I would argue sustainable development research is always a fair project to embark on, but funds are not equally available to all parties aiming at researching this huge group of topics:
1) Editorial (2021).How science can put the Sustainable Development Goals back on track:The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the UN’s flagship plan to end poverty and protect the environment. Researchers need to launch a rapid response.Nature 589, 329-330 (2021), Open access:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00104-0
2) Herausgeber: Chinmay Chakraborty, et al. (2021). The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies: Environmental Sustainability, Verlag: Springer International Publishing, Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-66490-9, Available at: https://www.springerprofessional.de/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-green-societies/18991716
3) Robert Barouki et al. (2021).The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerging research needs, Environment International, Volume 146, January 2021, Article The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerg...
Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely
Most of research funding institutions encourage research on Covid-19 related issues. I think this should be fine because the topic can be examined from many different perspective.
