What should you know about the virus?

I am writing this in the days of the Covid19 Pandemic.

Do you know what is a Virus?  When I ask people this question, the answer is related to their age.  High school kids immediately answer: It is RNA, one strand of the DNA.  With older people, their answer varies with their profession and aptitude to understand science.

I will skip the complex science and just explain this: the basic point is that a virus is made of the genetic material.  What is our understanding of the genetic material?  The exact structure of the genetic material was discovered by scientists in the 1950's.  The timing of this historic break-through and its effects on racism and discrimination against women is quite important.

I also ask the question: "Why is it important for the society that it citizens understand the nature of genetics?"  There is no better way to demonstrate that we are all human!  

I could tell you about the personalities of the scientists involved.  I can bring some simple answers and I would love to tell more to those who are interested.

The chemical structure of the genetic material was discovered in the fifties.  Until then it was not clear how and why some people are black, and some are white.  Most people believed blacks are inferior because of the color of their skin.  One issue of the National Geographic Magazine   was dedicated a few years ago to racism.  I read some of the articles and I could not comprehend some of the things that people believed about blacks. 

Before these discoveries most white men believed that women did not have the same thinking and analytic skills as men.  Some capable women writers and musicians had to take male pseudonyms, so they could publish their creations.  The Nobel Committee had a hard time awarding the Nobel Prize to Marie Curie, so she had to accept it with her husband.

The nature of epidemics was not understood at all.  The black plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 475 million to 375 million in the 14^th century.  People were scared and so ignorant, they pointed blaming fingers at the Jews: They are the ones that are poisoning the water wells and causing all the deaths.

The two scientists that discovered the chemical structure of DNA, the genetic material in human cells, received the Nobel prize in 1962.  They were two white men: Watson and Crick.  Years later they admitted that they got an important clue from an X-ray photograph taken by a woman: Rosalind Franklin.  She died at the age of 36, from cancer caused by over exposure to radiation.  I recommend her biography that came out in 2002: The Dark Lady of DNA.

I am very hopeful that our children and grandchildren, growing up after these discoveries, will be free of prejudice.  For them DNA structure, computers and smart phones are a matter of fact.  They should understand better the nature of viruses and epidemics.  They should treat epidemics with logic and scientific knowledge.

We pride ourselves in a free democratic society. We expect people to follow rules and respect them. I maybe too naive to believe that most people would trust scientists.  However, I hear more and more people are ignoring the advice of experts.  Poking fun at scientists. It really upsets me. 

I still hope for a better world.