What do covid-19 and radiation have in common?
I was 16 when I decided I would be a physicist. This decision was made not after seeing incredible technology developments or discovering cosmology and dreaming about uncovering the mysteries of the universe. I took this decision by being scared.
I can perfectly recall the scene: it was the anniversary of Goiania’s cesium 137 accident, and they were talking about it on the TV. I’ve already had an ideia of what a radioactive material was from an early age: as a child, I was fascinated by lightning rods. I kept asking my father nonstop about the types of lightning rods which existed. I would count how many of each type could I spot on the rooftops on my way to school and was particularly interested in the radioactive ones. My father told me they could be hazardous and I thought “Why on earth would someone put something harmful on the rooftops of apartment buildings?” (I was about six or seven by the time and would only later in life discover the ALARA principle)
Coming back to my decision, I felt that I needed to understand more about what happened in Goiania in 1987. So, my mom, who is also a physicist and works with medical physics, handed me a thin book with a briefing of the worst radiological and nuclear accidents in history — Goiânia and Chernobyl.
“how can something invisible be so powerful and dangerous? I was both fascinated and petrified”
The shock you had watching HBO’s Chernobyl series happened to me on that day: while reading about the disasters and consequent deterministic effects of radiation, like the acute radiation syndrome (ARS), the only thing that came to my mind was: how can something invisible be so powerful and dangerous? I was both fascinated and petrified. I felt a rush. From that moment on, I knew I had to understand it — and maybe help preventing that kind of accident from happening again. And that is very the path I am following now.
Now, with covid-19, we face a similar reality — an invisible and potentially dangerous enemy. It can spread through the air and over surfaces. Workers need masks and hazmat suits. And, suddenly, I felt that rush again. As scary as it is, radiation can be measured. At least when you are aware of it. If your personal monitor beeps, you know it is there. You know you are too close.
As for the coronavirus, it remains, until now, a silent enemy, lurking on surfaces. Certainty doesn’t exist, since it relies on scarce tests and several countries do not own numbers capable of providing reliable results — including mine. So, for now, things are scary again, since we remain on the dark without a Geiger Counter.
Hope is that, just like in radiological and nuclear disasters, we will learn and, from that, be prepared for our next battles.
