MY AUTISM IS HELPING ME TO FIND A VACCINE FOR COVID-19
DR CAMILLA PANG, 28, is autistic and a scientist who works for a pharmaceutical company. She is part of a team researching a vaccine for Covid-19. She says: I WAS five when I started to feel like a stranger among my own species: someone who understood the words but couldn’t speak the language. I’ll never forget asking my mum, ‘Is there an instruction manual for humans?’
Life could be challenging but things began to make sense for my family when, aged eight, I was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
People with autism have a harder time processing and understanding events, we have no filter in what we see or say, get easily overwhelmed and can display idiosyncratic behaviours that mean our talents can be overlooked or ignored.
However, far from getting in the way of me achieving a PhD in biochemistry and working, as I do, as a scientist, specialising in translational bioinformatics — applying and organising research data in ways that can help us improve human health — my single-minded focus and unconventional way of seeing the world have been a huge advantage.
I feel honoured to be part of the team of scientists researching a vaccine against Covid-19, something from which the whole world could benefit. This is a voluntary position.
I’ve come a long way since my primary school days. While I devoured my uncle’s science books, my primary school teachers thought I couldn’t read, aged eight, because, unlike my classmates, I wasn’t working my way through the set texts. I’d get restless in the classroom. Trying to focus on letters and numbers when everything is spinning around in your head is difficult.
School was hard in other ways too: I was bullied and taken advantage of, largely because I didn’t understand the nuances of social conventions and how girls played together.
When I was 14, I boarded at a private school. The routine suited me well and I left school with top grades before studying a biochemistry degree at university follwoed by a PhD in bioinformatics.
Autism, it turns out, is my superpower: it means my mind is always curious, figuring things out instead of filtering things out.
Being autistic also means I’m not as vulnerable to judgment, so people telling me I wasn’t good at something — like reading, when I was young — didn’t have the impact it might on others. As an adult, it means I’m more willing to speak up when I disagree, and also to explore new ideas without fear of failure.
All my life I’ve been trying to understand the world scientifically, to see how it can be improved for people — the focus of my work is to save lives — and I don’t know what better evidence of empathy there is.
Like many autistic people, I had meltdowns as a child, which can’t have been easy for my parents, but it has been directed into reaching my potential.
I am one of the lucky ones, largely thanks to the support I’ve had, and want to be an advocate for others and help reduce prejudice against those who, like me, are different.
■ EXPLAINING Humans by Dr Camilla Pang (€18, Penguin) is out now.
‘I don’t fear failure and I speak up when I disagree’