George Horrigan

With no end in sight in having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and Fall and Winter approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, we are hearing more and more about the bad effects of social isolation. As a result of this situation the use of “quaranteams” is a growing suggestion to try to manage the social risks involving this pandemic.

The world-wide Coronavirus pandemic has changed virtually everyone’s life. As we deal with this is a terrible situation it is important to keep in mind that innovation can be used to address many of the challenges the world is now facing. Just like President John F. Kennedy’s commitment in 1961 to "land a man on the Moon, and return him safely to the Earth" ushered in decade of incredible innovations, so can the fight against the Coronavirus and the preparation for future pandemics, provide mankind with tremendous innovative advances.

This week a Phase 3 clinical trial of the very promising COVID-19 vaccine known as mRNA-1273 began. The vaccine, which was co-developed by the U.S. biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will involve approximately 30,000 adult volunteers who do not have COVID-19. There are three keys that enabled this unprecedented innovation development timeframe.

Innovation: The Yin and Yang of the 21st Century Over the past 20 years, there has been an increasing interest in the topic of innovation,...