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Professor Heidi Drummer: This will not leave anyone untouched in 20 years’ time. We will all have had some SARS- CoV-2 infection. It might be mild. It might be severe.

Tracy Parish: That’s the view of a leading vaccine expert who lives the science every day.

Heidi: Oh we've got a neighbour in our street who we have conversations with about this topic. He does not believe in COVID. He thinks it's a government conspiracy to control us.

Tracy: Since the pandemic first impacted our lives – making sense of the science has become a daily challenge for all of us.

Professor Margaret Hellard AM: I contracted COVID when I was overseas, I was working in France at the time. And then I was going to have a holiday.

Tracy: HOW SCIENCE MATTERS is a Burnet Institute podcast. I’m Tracy Parish. Throughout this series you’ll meet some of Australia’s visionary scientific thinkers.

Professor Brendan Crabb AC: The thing about COVID is that it’s an in-between virus. It’s a Goldilocks virus. If it had been much worse, it would have most likely been crushed.

Professor Mike Toole AM: Even today, there’s still debate about how it spreads. We've seen in one city in Brisbane, three separate leaks in hotel quarantine that could only be explained by airborne spread.

Tracy: You’ll find out what keeps these scientists awake at night as they grapple with a pandemic – and how science is playing a leading role in shaping our response.

Professor Caroline Homer AO: I just think about all those midwives out there in really tough circumstances, frightened for themselves with COVID and for their families, but also really trying to do the best for the women who come through the door.

Tracy: We’ll uncover some of the silver linings of the scientific response.

Caroline: In Australia, we've basically done antenatal care the same forever. And lots of research has been done along the way to try and change that. In March, we changed antenatal care in two weeks.

Brendan: So yes the science has been phenomenally put in the spotlight in this country. And it's science that was real-time and it was also science that was 20 or 30 years in the making. Which is a story that perhaps hasn't been told.

Tracy: And we’ll explore how communities like PNG (Papua New Guinea) are juggling COVID and existing health issues yet rising to the challenge.

Professor Leanne Robinson: Having first hand delivered one of my boys prematurely in PNG at the labour ward of Modilon Hospital. I can absolutely attest to the resourcefulness and the inner calm that is inherent within health workers in PNG.

Brendan: you’re quite right to focus on science, not just for this podcast, but for the story of COVID in general, because it's the first big lesson. Science does matter. It's why we're not in the dark ages. It's why we can deal with it. It's why we will deal with COVID.

Tracy: Please share HOW SCIENCE MATTERS with two friends, or more. If they’re new to podcasts, show them how to follow our show. We want this podcast to spread like a virus – but in a good way.

Brendan: In Australia, every person can ask, what can they do? Be pro-science … back those who are working in this space.