Citizen scientists to the rescue

A food DNA sequencing workshop hold by EPFL's Digital Epidemiology Lab in 2019 © Alain Herzog / EPFL - Summer series: How science works From data collection to environmental and public-health advocacy, amateur scientists make a valuable contribution to scientific research. It's 6:30pm on Tuesday, 29 June. From the couch in my Geneva apartment, I'm working on a project for EPFL's Digital Epidemiology Lab - even though I know nothing about epidemiology and nobody at the lab even knows I'm taking part. But as an engaged citizen, I can lend a hand - or at least a finger, by clicking on the mouse button. My contribution consists of going through tweets that mention COVID-19. Here's one about a dream that turned into a nightmare; one about a town announcing that a new segment of the population could get vaccinated; one discussing concerns that the vaccine could lower male fertility; and one relaying a news article on how the Zambian government is worried about dwindling oxygen supplies. My job is to categorize each tweet.