Using fiction to engage audiences with infectious disease: the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on participation in the Bad Bugs Bookclub

How to set up and run a Bad Bugs Bookclub group

The Bad Bugs Bookclub is a public engagement initiative that enables scientists (microbiologists) and non-scientists to discuss the role of infectious disease and microorganisms in novels of fiction. The bookclub began in 2009, but since 2020, the meetings have taken place online, enabling international membership and occasional author participation. The bookclub has been shown, through peer-reviewed publications, to have impact and value to its members. For each book (the number now exceeds 100), a reading guide (questions to provoke discussion) and a meeting report (narrative of the discussion) were produced. Previously hosted on a website, the reading guides from this rich archive and resource are now presented alongside this paper, which provides tips on how to run a similar reading group.

Absence makes the mind grow stronger - Educating in a pandemic and beyond

With more than one academic year into the pandemic, it is timely to consider the lessons we learnt, and how they could shape education in the future. Papers from around the globe, reflecting on the directions we took and could take, were published in the FEMS Microbiology Letters virtual Thematic Issue 'Educating in a pandemic and beyond' in October 2021. Its content is reviewed here to facilitate discussions within the professional community. Online platforms and tools, that allowed a rapid emergency response, are covered, as well as enhancing student engagement, complementing and blending in-person activities with online elements for more flexible and accessible learning opportunities, the need for educator training, and improving science literacy overall and microbiology literacy specifically. As we go forward, in order to benefit from blended and flexible learning, we need to select our approaches based on evidence, and mindful of the potential impact on learners and educators. Education did not only continue during the pandemic, but it evolved, leading us into the future.