The response to covid-19 depended on state-of-the-art advances few appreciated beforehand, according to a new Technology Quarterly from The Economist

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- March 25th 2021 -- The Economist, one of the world’s most trusted sources of global news and analysis, has a new Technology Quarterly titled Racing against time. The report looks at tackling the pandemic and how the response to covid-19 has revealed the true potential--and, sometimes, the failings--of various technologies including testing, tracing, treatment, vaccination production, genome sequencing and forecasting.

The ultra-rapid development of vaccines against Covid-19 has fundamentally changed the course of this pandemic—and, quite possibly, of pandemics yet to come. It has also revealed just how powerful the technologies bioscience has developed over the past decades can be when it is applied to infectious disease. The breadth of the phenomenon has been as impressive as the height of its greatest successes.

Some of the conclusions reached in this Technology Quarterly include:

Forecasting: Putting the viruses of the world into an all-seeing monitoring system is wildly ambitious. It need not remain impossible. Forecasting pandemics is an aspirational goal and one that may not be that far off. (by Alok Jha)

Vaccinating: New ways of making vaccines will end the pandemic and change the world. (by Hal Hodson)

Testing & tracing: There’s future potential for new testing and tracing systems in automated testing. (by Hal Hodson)

Tracking evolution & variants: Reading DNA has become a crucial form of intelligence gathering. Spotting variants wherever they turn up, and assessing quickly what added risk they pose, must now be a central part of fighting the virus. (by Geoff Carr)

Treatment: The ideal is a system that can make lots of slightly different antibodies at once. (by Slavea Chenkova)

The lessons of covid-19 have given the world hope to expect better testing, better drugs, better vaccines and better foresight in crises to come—and between them, too.

For more information and to interview editor Oliver Morton or one of the authors of this Technology Quarterly, please contact: US TomAmos@economist.com / UK HollyDonahue@economist.com

About The Economist (Economist.com)
With a growing global audience and a trusted reputation for insightful analysis, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised sources covering current affairs in the world. In addition to the weekly digital and print editions and website, The Economist publishes Espresso, a daily news app, and Global Business Review, a bilingual English-Chinese product. The Economist produces several podcasts each week and short- and long-form video. The Economist maintains robust social communities on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks. A recipient of many editorial and marketing awards, The Economist was named the most trusted news source by the 2017 Trusting News Project Report.