The COVID-19 Era: Women in Science Trans-disciplinary Approach (Series 2)

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 20 January 2020, and later a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As of 2 April 2021, more than 129 million cases have been confirmed, with more than 2.83 million deaths attributed to COVID-19, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history (cf. WHO, 2020, 2021). Literature also has it that “The pandemic has resulted in significant global social and economic disruption, including the largest global recession since the Great Depression in the early 20th century. The pandemic has raised issues of racial and geographic discrimination, health equity, and the balance between public health imperatives and individual rights.” (WHO, 2021) When we are referring to the “COVID-19 Era”, we are looking at an extensive picture of the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2019 till date), which has had far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease itself causing significant morbidity and mortality; efforts to quarantine it, including political, cultural, social, educational, psychological, economic disruptions, domestic violence, religious, etc. implications.