scientists have increasingly been doing this during covid by publishing on biorxiv and then discussing on other channels (twitter etc)
for ex, this paper [0] by UCSF analyzing 26 of the 29 viral proteins expressed by the virus was posted on biorxiv and publicized further via twitter [1]. they identified 69 FDA approved drugs that target these proteins, giving the medical and scientific community a massive head start on studying drugs that could potentially be near-term treatments
there are some parts of academic science that are stuck in the last century but scientists themselves are certainly not
for those interested in learning more about how science works and how scientists operate, the covid situation is a great way to see how its done. modern science is amazing
[0] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.22.002386v1