For humans, the Covid-19 virus is a novel foe. And to combat a new pathogen, we need innovation: a new vaccine, new drugs, new tests, new clinical knowledge, and new data for epidemiology models. In response to the current crisis, many private companies and some governments have been trying to generate a vaccine and other medical advances in short order. And yet, whatever progress is being made, we can do better, suggests an MIT professor who has spent two decades studying the foundations of life-science breakthroughs. “There aren’t many ways…
