Necessity is the mother of invention. We’ve all heard that common phrase. When your need for something is imperative, you will find a way to get it.While researchers around the globe scramble to meet obvious needs, including new or improved diagnostic tools and methods for detecting the COVID-19 virus, pharmaceutical preparations and devices for treating the disease and — ultimately — a vaccine to prevent it, others have responded to immediate and urgent needs by modifying or re-purposing existing devices and technology to address immediate and urgent concerns.
Methods of cleaning face masks to allow repeated use and modifications of ventilators for multi-patient support may have been developed as temporary fixes, but will likely evolve into longer-term solutions, now that we have experienced the need. Over time, inelegant “MacGyver fixes” birthed in crisis will be improved and institutionalized, but only because their usefulness or benefit was first proven through critical need.
