Racing against time

The year of learning dangerously

Covid-19 has shown what modern biomedicine can do

It can move very quickly, but needs to be well applied

After a flying start

Testing and tracing could have worked better against covid-19

Many countries did not use the technology to its utmost

Finding what works

Well conceived drug trials have saved hundreds of thousands of lives

But new therapies have been scarce

A nucleic-acid revolution

Novel vaccines have performed remarkably quickly and well

They may herald a new era of reprogramming cells

Genome sequencing on an industrial scale

Watching SARS-CoV-2 evolve is fascinating and frightening

Variants of concern may require tweaked vaccines

All in the blood

Putting the viruses of the world into a panopticon is no longer impossible

It is still, however, wildly ambitious

Smoother sailing

Safe harbours

Covid-19 has revealed biological capabilities that will improve the odds in future pandemics

Acknowledgments and further reading