As the father of three girls, I sometimes get a little overwhelmed when thinking about COVID-19 and social distancing. They, as many are, are losing out on school, birthday parties, playing with friends, and just the basic social interactions that are so transformative at their age. However, what gets me through is that despite the very real threat and consequences, there is also a silver lining. The thing that inspires me and makes me proud to be living at this moment, and excited to educate my kids about what is happening, is the innovative response that we are also seeing.
Everywhere we look we see innovation. Everywhere we look we see hope, we see perseverance, we see action.
I am not talking about the government. Many of the the government’s actions have been ill-advised, slow, and missing the target. I am talking about entrepreneurs retooling their businesses, restaurateurs finding ways to keep their business going and their employees working, movie theater owners selling popcorn in an attempt to pay their employees, and, most of all, the inventors that are trying to find a way to fight this pandemic and overcome it.
We are in the middle of an innovation renaissance, and it is amazing.
The innovations range from the simple to the world-changing. The innovations of yesterday that had unrealized value are now allowing us to adapt to this isolation in ways that couldn’t even be imagined a few years ago.
This should be no surprise. The spirit of invention has always been strong in America. Since our founding, we built protection for inventors into our Constitution through patents. As a result, we have been a nation that cherishes and rewards innovation, serving as an example to the world.
An example from the New York Times was the hygiene hook:
That is the no-B.S. attitude that we are seeing all over. While the hygiene hook might not let our kids return to school next week, it might relieve some stress from going to work, the store, or the doctor’s office. And the hygiene hook is just the tip of the renaissance.
On the more complicated side, the pharmaceutical industry has jumped into high gear. From inventing new tests to new drugs, scanning their libraries of medicines for what might work, clinical trials have been fast-tracked, and they have tasked their scientists with developing a vaccine. They are working around-the-clock to produce research, actionable information, and when they do it will truly be world-changing.
Additionally, the research, development, and innovations of the past are truly paying off. Platforms such as Zoom are not only allowing friends to stay in contact and classes to meet, but also help businesses communicate with each other and move forward where possible. Qualcomm’s development of the chip technology that led to the smartphone in 1997 and continued development of the technology is both allowing parents at home with their kids to maintain sanity and helping us all stay in communication and aware of what is going on.
The rate of innovation is astounding. Besides one ivy-tower, out-of-touch group calling for these innovators to give up the rights to their innovations, these innovators are being supported not just monetarily, but morally, by everyone. In fact, we are waiting with bated breath for each and every new innovation, whether that innovation be a device to remind us not to touch our face or a way to mass-produce ventilators — and ultimately, to treatments and vaccines.
At some point, COVID-19 will be under control, and we will again resume living at least semi-normal lives. However, the inventions that come out of the renaissance will be with us forever. We need to remember that and remember to celebrate inventors not just today, but also tomorrow.
Charles Sauer (@CharlesSauer) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is president of the Market Institute and previously worked on Capitol Hill, for a governor, and for an academic think tank.
