A new approach to scientific collaboration can beat COVID-19: A number of challenges have disrupted efforts to create a coordinated and unified scientific response. Universities and researchers are struggling to engage across borders due to heightened political tensions worldwide. Conspiracy theories about the origin and spread of the novel coronavirus have accentuated this tension and stoked dangerous nationalist trends. Vaccine development has itself become a national competitive race for commercial ascendance. Ideological differences are trumping the value of data exchange and research partnerships. Despite earlier calls for “science diplomacy” in the wake of the pandemic, in reality the idea has received scant attention.
