Let's see what researchers think. What do you think are the expected consequences of the COVID19 pandemic on Research and Science? will it promote science-based policy making? will it dry all resources for research that is not directly connected to the Corona Virus cure?
I think we are going to see a lot of publications on the subject of before & after the lock-downs on human activity. Subjects will range from urban wildlife to ecotourism effects to range expansions and behavioral changes. I know that we have placed cameras in a wildlife sanctuary in India the day before the 21-day curfew and it will be very interesting to see how wildlife reacts to the lack of jeeps charging through the area constantly. Whether it is in the form of species diversity and also behavioral.
I think that pandemic will increase the number of studies and papers as an effect of more time spent by many people at home / at the computer and less possibilities to move anywhere. I also think that in light of the scale of the pandemic and the importance of this topic, there will also be many scientific papers dedicated to COVID19.
I think this pandemic will go a long way to promote research and science. at the end of this pandemic many publications will be done on this topic
That many publications will be completed on COVID-19 related issues does not necessarily implies that science is promoted. Science need to deal with a wide scope of topics, mainly with problems we don't even know may currently exist...
It will certainly give a push to some areas in the life sciences and applied research in areas related to the management of the crisis (e.g. big-data analytics), but in my opinion, it will overall damage scientific progress in other domains. Drying up the funding for other topics is just one example. The economic damage caused by the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the virus will certainly make it more difficult to conduct research in the future because there will be substantially less funding from industry and governments alike. Quarantine of research personnel already has already damaged on-going experiments, while forced vacations for "non-essential" R&D staff certainly don't promote science.
As a result of politics at the government level, the crisis is not managed by scientists but by officials trying to make a name for themselves. I am pessimistic about the promotion of science-based policymaking as a result of this crisis. Oren Shelef is spot-on with his determination that the number of papers published is not a good measure for the promotion of good research.
COVID-19 affected publishing many (various quality) papers. A lot of researchers try to use this popular topic by publishing in the top journals. And many journals are interested in publishing papers addressed to this issue. Therefore if you write a paper about COVID you have some good chances to publish it fast and good. :-)