BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics, Policy & Law

Innovations forged in the COVID crucible will reshape medicine: Editor’s Commentary

A decade of progress has been compressed into 10 months

December 31, 2020 11:32 PM UTC

The fight against COVID-19 is far from finished, but victory is close enough to start considering how the tools created to tame SARS-CoV2 will reshape the post-war world.

As with World War II and the Cold War,  the world’s brightest minds have enlisted in a race to create tools to extinguish an existential danger. Intellect, enhanced by immense financial resources and industrial capacity, is once again developing technologies that will be applied immediately and will also fundamentally change the course of history. As in past conflicts, technologies accelerated, perfected and proven in the pandemic crucible will become the springboards for innovation that will continue long after COVID-19 has been tamed...