On April 12, the second phase of the clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine was kicked off in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. It is the world's first vaccine candidate for the novel coronavirus entering Phase II of a human clinical trial, according to the World Health Organization. This means we are one more step closer to what is believed to be the final solution for the pandemic, given that no specific medicine has been found to treat the disease.

The vaccine was developed by a team led by senior bioengineer Major General Chen Wei. Aged 54, Chen has rich experience in combating infectious diseases gained from her involvement in multiple disasters, in both China and Africa.

When China was hit by SARS in 2003, she was given the responsibility to develop a vaccine. After over 50 days of hard work in the laboratory, her team developed a spray that proved effective. Of about 14,000 medical practitioners that used the spray across China, none was infected by SARS.

She was also there when a catastrophic earthquake hit Wenchuan in southwest China's Sichuan Province in 2008. She led a team for post-disaster epidemic prevention and worked for two months in the ruins.

In May 2015, Chen led an assistance team to Sierre Leone, the country hit hardest by Ebola in Africa. They invented a vaccine and put it to clinical use, which played an important role in containing the spread of the disease in the country.

After the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Chen's team was sent to the city as part of the military's assistance to help with the prevention and control in the city. Their immediate mission was to find efficient ways to identify and quarantine those infected through testing. In mobile laboratories, the team developed a technique that greatly shortened the time required to finish a nucleic acid test, a key gauge for COVID-19 infection.

At the same time, they started developing a vaccine to prepare for the worst scenario - the epidemic doesn't come to a quick end. In cooperation with local companies, they quickly finished the design and preliminary evaluation of a recombinant vaccine based on adenovirus vectors.

In the evening of March 26, the vaccine was approved for Phase I trial. Chen vaccinated herself to become one of the first volunteers to test the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. A total of 108 volunteers were included in the trail and no problem was found during medical observation.

The Phase II trial was to include 500 subjects with a placebo control group, and the inclusion criteria was expanded to include patients older than 60. On April 13, an 84-year-old Wuhan resident joined the trial, becoming the oldest volunteer so far.

"Old people account for a large portion of COVID-19 patients in critical condition, so our trial must test the effectiveness of the vaccine for this group of people," Chen said in an interview with China Central Television.

When she graduated from China's elite Tsinghua University in 1991, she chose to work with the Academy of Military Sciences out of many options. A career in scientific research is tedious and dangerous considering the various viruses she deals with, but she has carried it on for almost 30 years. "When your career is integrated with a key need of the nation, your personal value is amplified," she said.

(Print Edition Title: Finding a Cure)

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