The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world as we know it. The wars of the future will now involve fighting an invisible enemy and the Biotechnology industry will play a huge role in this fight.

The United States of America patriotically shut down their economy in order to save lives. As we slowly reopen the economy and our way of life, there will be several repercussions of this decision for years to come.

The biotechnology industry presents one of the best hopes for the global fight against viruses and bioweapons, which are the new threats of the 21st century.

Much of the reason we have been forced to endure a voluntary lockdown that has cost tens of millions of jobs, and trillions of dollars in economic output, is because we have yet to develop 21st century tools and tactics to fight against deadly viruses.

In the future, if we are not only more prepared, but also more technologically developed, we will be able to fight off future global pandemics while ensuring better health outcomes and not destroying the global economy in the process.

Scientists are working on new methods to shorten the window of time to create an effective vaccine, as current methods can often take a year or more to develop. With the advent of virus modeling through supercomputers, scientists may soon be able to create vaccines almost instantaneously, giving public health authorities the ability to immunize entire populations against future deadly viruses.

We could soon have a future where there is no need to lockdown during major pandemics, as people will be able to get vaccinated long before they are at risk of contracting the virus.

The scientific community is also working on therapeutic drugs to lessen the health consequences of viruses, as well as creating ways for people to safely test themselves from home for viruses.

Engineers are also developing new types of rapid-response mobile hospitals that can be readily set up to treat massive amounts of people in a short time span. All of these innovations are helping us to create a world with no more massive lockdowns and trillions of dollars in economic contractions, because we will soon be able to stop viruses in their tracks before they really get going. This will also help us to establish herd immunity quicker and allow the virus to infect people in a much safer manner.

The United States and the world will need to make significant investments in the development of new biotechnology to fight inevitable global pandemics. Much like guns, tanks, and ammunition were needed to fight the enemies of the 20th century, biotechnological innovations will be needed to fight the enemies of the 21st century.

In the global war on terrorism and war over world power, we should anticipate bad actors will create viruses to wreak havoc on the free world, because they are less expensive to make than nuclear weapons, and arguably more effective. The scientific and biotechnology community must prepare now for these threats before it is too late.

If the biotechnology industry can deliver on these innovations, they will successfully make quarantines better, help flatten the curve, prevent deaths and long term illness, and preserve our way of life and values.

The biotechnology industry is the face of the new warrior in the fight against contagious and deadly viruses. COVID-19 has created a new world, and new warriors must now be created to fight the invisible enemy.

Meghan McNulty is an attorney, political commentator, and biomedical engineer based out of Southern California. She is a frequent commentator on national television and radio programs across the country.