Inventive Long Islanders Work to Outsmart the Novel Coronavirus

April 10, 2020

Long Island companies are shredding their spreadsheets and recharting their course to wage war on COVID-19.
Graphic designers are producing face shields; makers of lingerie and souped-up cars are crafting masks; medical device makers are pursuing treatments; audiovisual experts are connecting the sick and elderly to their families.
The burst of Long Island ingenuity comes in the face of a pandemic-driven slowdown in the global economy.

“Entrepreneurs’ DNA is to find problems that need to be solved,” said Marc Alessi,  executive director of the Business Incubator Association of New York State. “This situation is actually a fit for their lives.”

Those innovators ultimately should get a fair share of credit for ending the pandemic,  said Alon Kapen, a securities lawyer at Uniondale-based Farrell Fritz.

“All the attention is on the government response,” he said. “But the real cure to the virus will be from the private sector.  All these companies in the private sector are making tremendous contributions to getting us out of this predicament.”