U.S. researchers must share results to quickly combat coronavirus - Washington Times

"There’s an easy way to combat the coronavirus and speed up medical discoveries. What are we waiting for?

When COVID-19 was first reported late last year, the very first thing scientists did was to rush to make any and all information on the emerging disease quickly and openly available. Researchers in China — not generally known for its openness — released the genetic sequence of the virus, posting it in GenBank, an open access database hosted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), so that any scientist, anywhere in the world, could get to work on understanding the disease and start innovating toward a vaccine. 

Overnight, researchers began sharing scientific data, articles and code related to the virus, as well as the results of experiments they conducted through open, online platforms....

This incredible progress is made possible by one simple thing: Scientists sharing the results of their research openly, without delay. 

This should be the norm for all scientific research — but it isn’t. ...

Why are the results of critical scientific experiments funded by taxpayers kept locked behind glass that can only be broken in the case of a health emergency? Why aren’t the lives of patients facing cancer, diabetes, dementia — or any other life threatening condition — treated with the same urgency? ...

With the stroke of pen, President Trump could unlock the results of this work, and require that the scientific articles and data resulting from taxpayer-funded research be immediately and openly shared online."