
The lessons learned from COVID-19
Pharmacist and former Dean of Unifesp recommends a book that reflects on the challenges faced during the pandemic and why we should not forget them

WHAT I RECOMMEND:
The book Um tempo para não esquecer: A visão da ciência no enfrentamento da pandemia do coronavírus e o futuro da saúde (A time to not be forgotten: A science-based perspective on facing the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of health), by pulmonologist Margareth Dalcolmo, a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ).
WHY IS IT WORTH READING?
Margareth Dalcolmo’s book, released in December 2021, is well worth reading. The book addresses the recent period during which we all experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and documents how we had to organize and act in the face of the then novel coronavirus.
I had the opportunity to meet and work alongside the author, who brilliantly recounts, in this book, how science and the healthcare field saved lives. It is also a message of hope and of how capable we are of overcoming adversity.
Um tempo para não esquecer features articles written weekly by Dalcolmo for O Globo newspaper, forming a historical record produced “in the throes of the pandemic.”

Soraya Soubhi Smaili is a pharmacist, biochemist, and professor in the Pharmacology Department at the Federal University of São Paulo’s (UNIFESP) Paulista School of Medicine, where she holds a master’s and doctorate degree. She was Dean of UNIFESP from 2013–2017 and 2017–2021. At the same university, she is the coordinator of the Center for Society, University, and Science Studies (SoU_Ciência).
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