Covid-19 has changed our world forever, impacting billions of lives all over the planet, mostly negatively. But how might it drive innovation in the perhaps not-so-distant future?
Bio-engineering is a buzzword that inspires awe and fear, and it should. If a programmable virus were to be created and were to fall into dangerous hands, we might all end up looking back at the Covid-19 years with warm nostalgia. But more optimistic possibilities exist too... A programmable virus might mean..: fast, safe vaccines for any possible new viral diseases? .. a cure for Age-related Macular Degeneration? .. specialised oncolytic viruses for killing different kinds of cancer cells? .. Or perhaps the perfect gene therapy, involving the perfect virus injected at birth that augments our immune system and optimizes our whole system so that we never fall ill and, in fact, have perfect vision/hearing etc for all our lives?
A human can dream, can't they?