During the pandemic, scientists have become the new media celebrities. It is obvious they play a vital role, but they do not all perform it in the same way. Our epidemiologists, virologists, immunologists, and public health doctors constantly fill the airwaves. Some stick close to the facts, outlining statistics and repeating the current public health advice, while others range more widely into the fields of psychology, sociology, and political economy.

In Ireland, the chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, has kept his focus tight and will not be drawn easily into wider terrain. In the United States, Anthony Fauci has been a lightning rod as political storms raged around the scientific effort. All over the world, the nexus between science and politics has been a high-stakes game, played out on many levels.

Scientists and politicians alike have had to stretch themselves in the direction of the other. While many were not up to the task, others rose to it superbly. The two leading figures in the World Health Organization’s pandemic response, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Michael Ryan, have been especially impressive, because of the breadth of vision they have brought to bear, astutely moving from the details of viral replication and the effectiveness of vaccines to the global forces shaping inequality in health outcomes.