Giovanni Destro Bisol, currently Professor of Anthropology at Sapienza Università di Roma, is a biological anthropologist interested in interdisciplinary studies of Open Science and Open Data, both from an empirical and theoretical point of view. He is member of the board of the Associazione Italiana per la Scienza Aperta (AISA).

Title: A light in the dark: open access to medical literature and the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract: There is a small but intense light in the darkness of COVID-19: for the first time, the goal of "health information for all" seems to be within reach. There are, in fact, two "good news". First, ninety percent of COVID-19 peer-reviewed articles have been published in open and immediate access, a major step up from the 50% open access rate, on average, for the ten deadliest human diseases. Second, there is an easy, simple and effective way to harness the awareness of the importance of open science to human health shown by researchers and stakeholders during the pandemic. By implementing the green road strategy we describe here, we could bridge a substantial portion of the open-access gap between COVID-19 and other human diseases.