Philip Marcelo Infectious disease researcher Laurel Bristow poses at Emory Midtown Hospital in Atlanta, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020. In another time, experts like Bristow would have enjoyed the esteem, respect and relative obscurity afforded by academia. But for better or worse, COVID-19 thrust virologists, epidemiologists and other normally low-profile scientists into the pop culture crucible this year. (AP Photo/John bazemore) December 31, 2020 - 5:01 AM BOSTON - Dr. Ashish Jha started 2020 thousands of miles from home, taking a sabbatical in Europe from his academic post at Harvard. Then the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the U.S. Jha, an expert on pandemic preparedness, returned to Massachusetts, and his blunt talk on the unfolding disaster was soon hard to miss on national news and social media.