Israeli Innovation Points to Medical and Economic Recovery
Nations that foster innovation will lead the victory against COVID-19. They also will be in the vanguard of the strong economic recovery that will follow the medical triumph against the pandemic.
Nothing here is meant to reflect insensitivity to current suffering. I don’t wish to understate the tremendous financial, business, and employment losses from which millions of families and businesses will have to recover, in the United States and elsewhere. Some will never recover completely from the pandemic’s economic harm.
Still, the darkness of the current moment must not be allowed to overshadow the bright promise indicated by the economic freedom and innovation now being unleashed.
My career experience has taught me much about how nations transform because of economic freedom and innovation. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, I served on his White House legislative affairs staff. This was a pivotal moment. America was mired in “stagflation” when Reagan took office. By the time he completed his successful tenure, his policies of eliminating needless regulations and cutting high marginal tax rates brought about an unprecedented level of American prosperity.
Reagan kindled a national enthusiasm for entrepreneurship that continues to this day, propelled by President Donald Trump’s tax and regulatory policies.
Since my time on the White House staff, I’ve devoted much of my career to promoting commerce and investment between the United States and Israel. During some years, I have spent more of my time living and working in Israel than in my native United States. I’ve witnessed and benefited from the extraordinary transformation of Israel’s economy.
For the first three decades of Israel’s independence as a state, its government was dominated by democratic socialists. Socialist economics suppressed Israel’s economic growth and made the nation dependent on foreign assistance.
More recent governments in Israel have championed free-market economics, and the result has been Israel’s emergence as a hive of innovation. Israel is often referred to as “Startup Nation.”
Today, Israeli innovators are giving the world economy good examples of how to conquer COVID-19 while making lasting contributions to well-being and efficiency.
Israeli startup Axonize provides a Smart Enterprise platform that enables management of healthcare infrastructure by connecting sensors to retrieve information from various hospitals or even various jurisdictions to monitor and help in distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) inventory. Axonize artificial intelligence (AI) can also can monitor and run analytics on COVID-19 patients, allowing doctors and nurses to check on their patients’ vital signs without physically being in the room. The Israeli Health Ministry will soon be implementing this new technology to determine the health of patients, the course of the disease, and other vital pieces of information.
Israel also is an innovator in developing and deploying ozone sterilizing systems. With simple installation, small, compact systems can be operated manually, or with a remote control. Ozone sterilization is optimal for disinfecting contaminated rooms and will not cause damage to machines or humans if in contact.
An outstanding Israeli entrepreneur is a key partner in an innovative business that manufactures “fold-up” rooms in Europe. This provides a ready-made solution for hard-pressed communities that will need additional hospital rooms during the pandemic. Fold-up rooms from Continest come complete with electricity, air conditioning, heating, and can be set up in a matter of minutes providing privacy and seclusion for each COVID-19 patient.
The spirit of Israeli innovation for victory against all odds is on display now in northern Italy. As described in this recent article in the Times of Israel, Israeli physician Carmi Sheffer is taking part in imaginative solutions to vexing problems. He works at a hospital in Padua where he and his colleagues are seeing success with the antiviral drug Remdesivir. Dr. Sheffer also tells the charming story of the creative approach physicians have taken in Parma, where patients who could not be put on ventilators using a tube were attached using snorkeling masks, with a part connecting it to the breathing machine being fabricated in a 3D printer.
Because they know that too much bureaucracy and preemptive regulation threaten their security and survival, Israelis are ahead of the European Union and the United States in developing COVID-19 vaccines and launching clinical trials.
The struggle against COVID-19 is a real war. Wartime emergencies, as well as smart peacetime national defense programs, often spur innovations and civilian spinoffs that change domestic economies for the better. If the U.S. government avoids impulses to over-regulate following the emergency, then our great country can take its place beside the “Startup Nation” of Israel as the world’s “Startup Superpower.”
