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READING THE NEWS these days can make anyone sink into a quag of gloom. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering unprecedented levels of bleaching. Islamic clerics in Pakistan are getting away scot-free after sexually abusing their students. A plague of locusts has devastated crops in East Africa to leave millions starving.

One piece of news though offers some measure of hope. English hacker “Shrine” has helped scientists and physicians around the world access vital information about COVID-19 after successfully hacking into academic research databases with expensive paywalls. He (or she) then downloaded more than 5,000 research papers and released them online via Reddit. This effectively gives medical frontliners everywhere access to information that can potentially help them to develop a vaccine that can put an end to the pandemic. Although his/her actions are illegal, “Shrine” may have kept a terrible history from repeating itself: Paywalls impeded researchers from getting medical advice pivotal to averting the Ebola outbreak in 2014. In the best case scenario, “Shrine” may just have helped the human race secure a future that is free from COVID-19.