To the initiative of the Management Commitee of ESSA, a paper has been publised in JASSS on the role of ESSA and social simulation in the current crisis. It outlines the enormous complexity in dealing with the pandemic and the role of scientists in this process, particular using modelling. It reviews the potentials and gaps in agent-based models. Three challenges specified for COVID-19 that relate to 1) prediction, 2) human behavior and 3) data. The complicated role of modelling in the policy process during this pandemic is discussed. It addresses the gaps and policy-modelling interface with a call for extensive collaboration between public stakeholders and academic scholars in terms of model and data sharing. 

Please find the article in JASSS here: http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/23/2/10.html