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Driving along Reykjavik’s windswept roads on a cold March morning, Kári Stefánsson turned up the radio. The World Health Organization had just announced that an estimated 3.4% of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 would die — a shockingly high fatality rate, some 30 times larger than that for seasonal influenza.
There was a problem with that estimate, however: it was based on reported cases of COVID-19, rather than all cases, including mild and asymptomatic infections. “I couldn’t figure out how they could calculate it out without knowing the spread of the virus,” recalls Stefánsson, who is the founder and chief executive of deCODE genetics, a human-genomics company in Reykjavik. He became convinced that making sense of the epidemic, and protecting the people of Iceland from it, would require a sweeping scientific response.

Normally, as a result of the significant disruption that is being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic we are very aware that many researchers will have difficulty in meeting the timelines associated with our peer review process during normal times. Please do let us know if you need additional time. Our systems will continue to remind you of the original timelines but we intend to be highly flexible at this time.

The COVID-19 outbreak was triggered in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, which
is in the Hubei province of China. The virus continues to spread across the world.
Although the epicentre of the outbreak was initially China, with reported cases either
in China or in travellers from the country, cases now are being reported in many other
countries. While some countries have been able to effectively treat reported cases, it
is uncertain where and when new cases will emerge. Amidst the significant public
health risk COVID-19 poses to the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) has
declared a public health emergency of international concern to coordinate international
responses to the disease. It is, however, currently debated whether COVID-19 could
potentially escalate to a global pandemic.
In a strongly connected and integrated world, the impacts of the disease beyond
mortality (those who die) and morbidity (those who are unable to work for a period of
time) has become apparent since the outbreak. Amidst the slowing down of the Chinese
economy with interruptions to production, the functioning of global supply chains has
been disrupted. Companies across the world, irrespective of size, that are dependent
upon inputs from China have started experiencing contractions in production. Transport
being limited and even restricted among countries has further slowed global economic
activities. Most importantly, some panic among consumers and firms has distorted
usual consumption patterns and created market anomalies. Global financial markets
have also been responsive to the changes and global stock indices have plunged.

Unlike other investments, living ocean resources literally grow during downturns. During World War II, many fishing vessels were forced to stop fishing. This reprieve allowed fish populations, such as cod, to increase. Should any such gains be accruing during COVID-19, we must resist the urge to immediately over-harvest them. Instead, we should use fisheries science to design intelligent harvest-yield protocols that maximize the long-term benefit of any possible COVID-19 gains.