Never in my life have I thought I would live in a deadly pandemic until a few months ago. It actually gives me the chill just to think about it actually, like in 30-year-time from now, I can say to my kids that I have lived through a pandemic, that is if I don't catch the disease and die (let's hope not shall we? And please wear masks).
It is no doubt that this pandemic has hit us hard, both economically and socially. I have not been able to come back in the lab for 4 months now apart from a few short occasions here and there. People have been practising social distancing everywhere and to be honest, this might be the best time for those who don't like human contacts. We look at each other as meat bags full of potentially deadly biohazard. And then there’s this dreaded feeling about when is this going to be over, then the feeling of emptiness when you can’t see your best friends at work, and you haven’t seen your family in months.
But enough with the negativity, because to me, throughout this pandemic, we have seen a lot of progress and creativity in how people can make the most out of the situation. We have seen the rise in the number of scientists using their knowledge to help others understand the disease and protect themselves better. We have seen people making videos to share their experience of their lockdown and quarantine, so we know that we are on the same boat. We have seen celebrities came together to make free music events to make lockdown a happier or …less bad experience. And then this awkwardly exhilarating feeling when you first call someone through Zoom for the first time in weeks or months. Maybe it’s just me but these are the feelings I have throughout this whole ordeal.
BUT there is ONE thing that I myself as a PhD student and a scientist from a developing country appreciate the most is how science has suddenly become so much more accessible! I’m not talking about free open access journals, I’m not talking about the 10X more science videos about the biology of coronavirus to watch on YouTube, I’m talking about seminars and conferences. But what do I mean by that, wasn’t I be able to attend conferences and seminar even before the lockdown you might ask? And the answer is yes and no! I am extremely grateful to be doing a PhD with Cancer Research UK, I truly am. Without them, I don’t think I will ever be able to do any science if at all. They paid for my tuition fees (which is an extortion amount of money by the way for an international student, if you think £9000 is high, think again!), they paid for my bench fees, they gave me money to live day to day and they pay for my travelling to conferences as well. But the reality is not as simple as it seems, particularly the last part about travelling. The thing is, I am from Vietnam. We are a small nation in South East Asia, we are known for the beautiful landscape, we are proud to have “golden forests, and silver ocean”, yet we have one of the weakest passports in the world. Literally everywhere we go, we need to apply for a visa. It doesn’t matter if it is a 1-day trip to a shopping mall in France or it’s a 30-day all-expense paid extravaganza to Finland, we need a visa! And sadly, it’s not some easy e-visa you can do it online, it has to be paperwork, physical documents, with stamps, with signatures from your boss, from your employers. You have to submit every single ticket you bought, detail out your plan of travelling, is it by bus? Is it by plane? What hotel you are going to stay in? Where is the hotel booking confirmation? Some countries even make us write a personal statement stating why are we going there and details every single little thing that we’re going to do? On top of that, you need to fill in a 5-page application form document and book an appointment at a correct Embassy. You’re lucky if the Embassy building is near you, if not you have to travel to the nearest place, which could be something like Glasgow to London for a visa. So you see where I’m going with this right? I remember people used to tell me that I was just lazy, and it could not be that hard to apply for a visa. And it might be true that I’m a little bit lazy, but how can you not when you have to put in so much money, time and effort just to get a few days in a foreign country? It can take me days to collect and organise all the documents, that doesn’t include the waiting time to find an appointment too. And there is only a certain window where I can then go to the embassy to submit my application form, you cannot be earlier than that, and certainly not later. On top of that, I have to balance with the work in the lab and my experiments and it can very quickly be overwhelming. If you have a passport from an EU country, or Canada, or America or the UK, you would never understand the difficulty others like me have to face. If you don’t put yourself in the same shoes as others, you will NEVER know!
For so long, the only conferences that I chose to go to is within the UK because I can just simply hop on the train and not worry about all the deadlines and appointment I have to make. While on the other hand, I have to put down or think very carefully about many conferences in other countries that I too would love to join, and don’t even mention conferences in America. One of my best friends in the lab had her visa refused when she was actually invited and has accepted to attend to give a talk at a conference in America. I read in a Nature news about the story of an African scientist who also could not attend a conference where she was an invited speaker because of the complicated visa process.
So this pandemic has really changed things around a lot. I just so appreciate that I can now attend conferences virtually, through my screen, without the hassle of travelling and visa and worry if it is going to be rejected or if my money will be lost. I can just stay home, in my own comfort, listening and catching up with the best science advance in the field. From weekly seminars to the massive ASCB-EMBO conference, I can attend them! I know some of you may still think face-to-face conferences are still better, and I totally agree. You get to meet your peers, you get to chat with them, you get to go share a few drinks at the bar, I get all of that and I absolutely love them too. But if you ever feel like virtual conferences are not the same or not as good, if you ever feel like virtual conferences are boring or pointless for any reason, please just think about those people like me who won’t or less likely to be able to attend them in real life and know that we appreciate that so very much.
Before this pandemic, the motto “science has no border” only seems to be true to those who are fortunate to be born or lived in 1st world countries. It is such an irony to say this but, in a time like this where everyone is forced to stay home, and no travel is allowed, to me, this is the only time where there is truly no border in science! I want to assure you it is absolutely nothing wrong with being from a country where you don’t need a visa to travel, and it is a bless and that is how science can progress because of those who can do it. But the next time you see someone complain about how complicated their experience is, and until the policy for us scientists changed, just please take a moment to appreciate how lucky for you are to be able to do what you do and try looking at the problem from their perspective instead, and this applies to everything else too!
Until next time :)