Long standing warnings by infectious disease specialists that a pandemic of some sort was inevitable generally fell on deaf ears. At least until COVID-19 reared its ugly head and changed the world almost overnight. No more ignoring the experts; now we are hungry for any morsel of information they can provide. But the problem is that the experts are also stymied. There are just too many unknowns. Still, we have made some headway when it comes to measures to reduce infection and almost every day we manage to shine a bit more light into the dark crevices of the gloomy world with which the coronavirus has cursed us. Hopefully, sometime in the future we will again be singing “Merrily We Roll Along,” but for now choir practice is a risky business.

Joe Schwarcz is Director of McGill University’s “Office for Science and Society” which has the mission of separating sense from nonsense. He is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching chemistry and for interpreting science for the public. “Dr Joe” has hosted a radio show on science for forty years, has appeared hundreds of times on television, writes a regular newspaper column and is the author of eighteen best-sellers. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Athabasca University, Cape Breton University, the University of Windsor and Simon Fraser University. Professor Schwarcz is also an amateur magician and often spices up his presentations with a little magic.