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🇺🇾 Uruguay /Health & Science

From the laboratory to the football pitch: Rafael Radi discusses meeting Leo XIV and his role at Liverpool’s new stadium

From El País · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Rafael Radi, a biomedical researcher and member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, reviewed challenges facing Uruguayan science in an interview with El País.
  • He said cooperation among scientists, health authorities, government and opposition helped Uruguay respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Radi argued that Uruguay needs a strong scientific system to prepare for future crises, retain talent, achieve technological independence and build a knowledge-based economy.

Rafael Radi says the COVID-19 pandemic changed the trajectory of his life, bringing heavy responsibility but also satisfaction. The scientist, who helped lead Uruguay’s Honorary Scientific Advisory Group during the health emergency, reflected on that period in an interview with El País’s En Clave País.

Radi highlighted the cooperation that developed among Uruguay’s scientific community, health authorities, government and opposition. “We managed as a society to bring together a scientific response that fit very well with the health response, government decisions and the work the opposition was also doing at that time,” he said.

We managed as a society to bring together a scientific response that fit very well with the health response, government decisions and the work the opposition was also doing at that time.

· Rafael RadiRadi described cooperation across Uruguay’s scientific and political institutions during the pandemic.

He cautioned that no country could pass through the pandemic without consequences. In his view, Uruguay achieved “quite good mitigation” while maintaining a quality of life that compared favorably with countries that imposed stricter restrictions.

No one was going to come out unscathed, every country in the world.

· Rafael RadiHe said pandemic outcomes should be assessed comparatively because all countries suffered consequences.

The experience also changed how the public viewed science, Radi said. “Science moved to another level in the public’s understanding and in the importance that political activity has given it.” He argued that a stronger scientific system would help Uruguay respond to future crises, retain skilled people, develop technological independence and create a knowledge-based economy.

Radi said support for scientific development has extended across governments and political parties since he began his career in the 1980s. His current work also includes research into functional foods and health, as well as discussion of artificial intelligence. He is director of the Biomedical Research Center at the University of the Republic’s Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

A scientific system is extremely important for a country.

· Rafael RadiRadi summarized his case for sustained investment in Uruguay’s scientific system.
About this summary

Originally published by El País in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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