Samia Hurst, bioethicist at the University of Geneva. Samia Hurst is a member of the federal Covid-19 Task Force. She provides clear answers in the media to tough moral questions – not about what society should do, but what principles should guide it. She states that doctors might decide against fighting for the life of an elderly patient suffering from Covid-19, not because their life is less worthy, but because medical care probably cannot save them, and that when choosing between two tracking apps, the more intrusive must be excluded. She also recalls that a crisis does not necessarily obscure our thoughts, but can sometimes clarify our priorities.

Daniel Probst, PhD student in chemistry at the University of Bern. One website was quick to help us follow the evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic in Switzerland: corona-data.ch. Daniel Probst, a 34-year-old chemistry PhD student at the University of Bern, set up the site in a few hours over a weekend. He compiled the data released by each canton, thereby proving that a private person can provide the public with data more quickly than the Federal Office of Public Health, and present it more clearly than in the official PDF reports. Since its launch in mid-March 2020, the website’s structure has been replicated in Italy and Austria too.

Servan Grüninger, biostatistician and co-founder of the science think-tank Reatch. He’s quick at explaining – and at correcting, where necessary. When experts and the media started comparing the number of Covid-19 tests made by different countries, he quickly stressed the importance of taking into account the different population sizes and stages of the epidemics. He keeps engaging with scientists on Twitter – regardless of how famous they are – and asks for more details and sources. What he demands is clarity: “It is crucial in these hectic times to distinguish reliable information from speculation”, he writes on his blog. “The enemy we are dealing with here cannot be fought with casual statements or wiseacre recommendations”.