How Researchers Are Making Do in the Time of COVID-19 21/12/2020 Image: UN/Unsplash. One of the astonishing aspects of the human response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been how quickly scientists pivoted to studying every facet of the virus in order to mitigate the loss of life and plan for a return to normalcy. At the same time, a lot of non-coronavirus research ground to a near halt. With research labs and offices shuttered for all but essential workers, many scientists were stuck at home, their fieldwork and meetings canceled and planned experiments kicked down the road as they struggled to figure out how to keep their research programs going. Many took the opportunity to catch up on writing grants and papers; some – in between caring for kids – came up with strategic workarounds to keep the scientific juices flowing.