Pandemic Publishing: Covid-19 and HIV
In his Editorial of Volume 20, issue 3 of African Journal of AIDS Research, Editor-in-Chief, Alan Whiteside, reflects and shares his thoughts on pandemic publishing in relation to Covid-19 and HIV.
Whiteside questions what we learnt from HIV that could be applied to the Coronavirus and the illness that it causes. He asks, is HIV as important as before and how should we adapt to changing burdens of disease and public health priorities? He addresses these questions through a brief review of six recent publications about COVID-19.
Whiteside notes that to remain relevant, articles on Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS in Africa must be invited and the journal is considering including a section dedicated to this in their aims and scope. Whiteside has, more broadly, asked if there is a need for an international Covid-19 society and/or a high-quality journal dedicated to Covid-19.
In the early years of the HIV pandemic in the 1980's, it was possible to read almost everything published on the economics of the disease. "Indeed, I had written some of itand knew most of the other authors. It was feasible to keep up-to-date with the science or to have a working knowledge of it at least. Those halcyon days are gone."
When reflecting on conferences and material published at the height of the HIV pandemic, Whitesides notes that although largely forgotten now, just as with the Covid-19 pandemic, there were there were denialists, kooks and conspiracists. "Some scientists were confident that science would give us the tools (drugs or prevention methods) to stop the pandemic. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic is similar except that (mis)information is published and disseminated much faster and is less regulated in the age of social media."
Publishing in the early years of the HIV pandemic was a slow business. Whiteside's first co-edited book on HIV, which brought together papers on the social and economic impacts of AIDS in southern Africa, was published in 1993 but was based on a conference that had been held three years earlier. By contrast, COVID-19 has rapidly amassed articles and even books, six of which are reflected in Whiteside's editorial.
Read about these six recent publications and Whiteside's thoughts on pandemic publishing in relation to Covid-19 and HIV here.