Chapter 143: The World's First Measles Vaccine and the Beginning of Hunger

in the office.

Huang Sizhong knocked on the door in a hurry and said loudly with an irrepressible joy: "Brother, we succeeded."

After saying this, he held onto the corner of the table, looking breathless.

It was almost the twelfth lunar month and it was freezing cold outside.

His nose and face were red from the cold.

"Brother Huang, don't be anxious. Speak slowly."

Wang Mengde quickly said a few words to comfort him, and then poured him a cup of hot water.

With his hands covering the enamelware pot filled with hot water, and the stove in the house burning brightly, he took a moment to calm down and continue:

"Brother, we just did an experiment, using the isolated and cultured attenuated measles strain 'Jing 49' to inoculate into primary chicken embryo cells, and finally successfully harvested the virus liquid."

The so-called attenuated measles strain 'Jing 49' means that they gave a number to each attenuated strain when they were doing experiments.

These numbered attenuated strains are then used to perform different passage experiments in diploid cells one by one or simultaneously.

Finally, observe the data of each set of experiments and the results received.

This time, after the 49th generation of vaccination experiment, the attenuated measles strain numbered "Jing 24" successfully harvested some virus fluid.

These virus liquids, after being freeze-dried with appropriate stabilizers, are made into measles vaccines.

As for the actual efficacy, a large number of clinical trials are still needed.

"Not bad, not bad. Well done, Junior Brother Huang. You have worked hard recently."

Wang Mengde said happily.

For more than a month, Huang Sizhong has been living and eating at the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In addition to his normal working hours, he came early every day and stayed in the laboratory until late at night.

In less than a month, his already frail body seemed to be blown away by a gust of wind.

This situation was finally told to Wang Mengde by Zhang Qiaoyu, who then forced this junior fellow apprentice to leave work on time every night, and also asked several other people to take turns watching over him.

"Hehe." Huang Sizhong touched the back of his head, with an embarrassed expression on his dark face.

"Brother, I am just following your ideas and methods. Without your guidance, I am afraid we would not even have any ideas at all."

"Junior Brother Huang, drink some hot water to warm yourself up. We'll go to the laboratory together later."

Wang Mengde said with a smile.

After he finished drinking a cup of hot water, he stood up, took the cotton jacket, and the two of them left the office and walked towards the laboratory not far away.

After looking at the actual virus liquid in the laboratory, Wang Mengde instructed: "Use the freeze-dried protective agent to make the vaccine as soon as possible. After it is made, I will report to the hospital.

Of course, during the production process, we must be careful to avoid unexpected situations.”

"Yes, senior brother."

Behind him, several people agreed excitedly.

No one had expected that the virus fluid could be isolated and cultivated in just two months.

Following the process and methods given by my senior brother, at this step, we are not far from success.

The rest is to wait until the vaccine is made using freeze-dried protective agents and then conduct clinical trials. If the effect is good, they will go down in history.

This is the world's first measles vaccine.

I didn’t expect it to be developed in China.

Although it is a bit helpless, we have to admit that in this era, in almost all science and technology, the West is far ahead of our country.

Take the pharmaceutical sector for example. China is just a follower and can only imitate others by following the footsteps and paths of others.

Once they achieve the world's first place and develop the world's first measles vaccine, the honor that each person can receive will definitely be beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Thinking of this, they felt even more motivated.

Leaving a few of his fellow junior colleagues to continue their work in the laboratory, Wang Mengde went to Pu Lao's office by himself.

After entering the room, he saw Mr. Pu reading documents. He quickly took the thermos and poured some hot water into the cup on the table.

"Meng De is here. Please sit down and drink some hot tea. It just so happens that I met 'President Zhou' a few days ago and he gave me a pound of good tea."

Mr. Pu put down the documents and said with a smile.

"Sir, as soon as I entered the room, I smelled the fragrance of tea. It is indeed the tea sent by 'President Zhou'. I can tell it is top quality just by smelling it."

Wang Mengde was not polite at all. He opened the drawer of the desk in front of Pu Lao, took out a can of tea, pinched out a handful of tea, and put it in the enamel jar he usually used.

After pouring boiling water, he picked up the enamel pot, put it to his nose and sniffed it gently a few times, then his face was full of intoxication.

Looking at his most outstanding disciple, Pu Lao said happily:
"Meng De, if you like to drink, take half later. I still have some at home, all given by 'Dean Zhou' and others."

"Sir, I'll be polite then."

Wang Mengde said happily.

He doesn't smoke or drink much on weekdays. His favorite thing is tea.

Unfortunately, there are not many good teas available on the market. Most of the fine products are supplied to special groups of people and exported to exchange foreign currency.

In addition, with agriculture as the main focus, a large number of tea trees were cut down and crops were planted in the tea gardens, leaving even less tea on the market.

Especially this year, although tickets are not required yet, tea shops are often out of stock, and even the most valuable teas are sometimes not available.

Two people were holding teacups, drinking tea and chatting.

"Meng De, how is your development of the measles vaccine going?"

After chatting for a while, Mr. Pu suddenly asked.

During this period of time, he saw all the disciples busying around.

But because he was old and didn't know much about test tubes and reagents, he didn't ask much.

Today, when I saw Wang Mengde with a smile in his eyes and he came to the office to chat with him, I started to guess something.

"Sir, I was just about to tell you that there has been a new breakthrough in the research of measles vaccine. Several of my fellow apprentices are very capable, and we expect to have samples in a few days.

Once the samples are produced, I will report to President Lu to see if clinical trials can be arranged as soon as possible."

Wang Mengde said with a smile.

"What? Samples are coming out so soon?"

Pu Lao asked in surprise.

It's no wonder that he didn't believe it. In the beginning, when Wang Mengde decided to only lead eight inexperienced young people to do research, he had advised against it.

According to him, relying on the fame of his student, he could cooperate with the Institute of Biological Products in Beijing, so that the research and development could be successful more quickly.

Wang Mengde politely declined this suggestion.

This made him very worried, and he felt that this disciple was a little too arrogant.

I plan to wait until Wang Mengde hits a wall, and then help him build bridges and conduct research with others.

Unexpectedly, we received news that the product was about to be successfully developed.

With just this nine-person team, they were able to complete a difficult problem that other research institutes had spent countless manpower and resources on for years but still failed to complete in just two months. Anyone who heard about this would not believe it.

"Yes, sir, now it's just the last step. In a few days, it will be almost done."

Wang Mengde said affirmatively.

In fact, the most difficult part of developing a measles vaccine is the lack of a clear research direction.

When he guided everyone on how to conduct research based on the successful experience of his previous life in the space, they had a clear direction and only needed to conduct the experiments step by step, so naturally the development speed would be faster.

"That's good. Once there is a vaccine, infectious diseases like measles will be much easier to deal with."

Pu Lao said excitedly.

He stood up, walked around the office twice, then sat back in his chair, took out the tea can from the drawer and pushed it in front of Wang Mengde.

"Meng De, I'm happy today. You can take this can of tea back later. You don't have to leave it for me."

He said this while pinching his beard, his face full of longing.

"Thank you, sir."

"Haha, no need to thank me. I should be the one thanking you on behalf of the people of this country."

"Sir, you are too kind. This is what I should do. Besides, now that the vaccine has been developed, it still needs to go through a large number of clinical trials to determine whether it is effective."

"Everything is difficult at the beginning. Now that you have made a good start, the rest will be much easier. Even if it doesn't work this time, if you continue to research in the same direction, you will be able to develop a qualified vaccine sooner or later."

After chatting with Mr. Pu for a while, it was almost time for lunch when Wang Mengde returned to his office carrying a can of tea.

night.

After dinner, Ran Xiaomei finished her housework, took out a cloth bag, and said to Wang Mengde:
"Meng De, tomorrow is New Year's Day. Go back to Tiangezhuang and give your grandparents a pound of sesame oil, a bag of brown sugar, and some white flour buns."

"I got it, Mom."

Last week, when he returned to Tiangezhuang, he found that the village canteen could no longer prepare four dishes for a meal. Instead, it only had one dish, and the staple food had become steamed corn bread.

There is basically no oil or water in the dishes.

But it is only winter now, and it will take several months before the crops can be harvested.

Even digging wild vegetables would take three months.

In this situation, the villagers panicked and the team quickly reported to the commune.

Unfortunately, this is now the case in most of the country, and there is nothing the communes and higher authorities can do about it.

After Wang Mengde came back, he told Wang Hao and Ran Xiaomei about the situation.

They knew that Wang Tianshi and Wang Jinghui were old, and if they went hungry, they would definitely not survive the winter.

So they agreed that Wang Mengde would secretly bring back some sesame oil, brown sugar, white flour and other things that would not attract other people's attention every once in a while to help the two elderly people supplement their nutrition.

It’s not that they don’t want to send food.

But it was because it was useless to send the food back because the stove at home was long gone.

Besides, even if they had a stove, they wouldn’t dare to cook at home. Once the smell of rice got out, the neighbors would definitely find out, and that would be a disaster for them.

Things like sesame oil and steamed white flour buns are not very conspicuous and can be eaten secretly at home at night without being discovered.

White sugar can be drunk with hot water, which is a good thing to replenish energy and calories.

"Tell me, why is there a sudden shortage of food?"

Ran Xiaomei packed up her things, then sat on a chair, muttering softly.

"Freeze said."

Wang Hao's face changed and he spoke hurriedly.

After saying that, he walked out the door, looked around carefully, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he found that there was no one there.

If this is heard by someone with ulterior motives, it will be bad news.

Seeing her husband being so cautious, Ran Xiaomei knew she was in the wrong, so she rolled her eyes at him and said nothing more.

the next day.

In the morning, on the way back from Tiangezhuang.

Sitting on the bus, Wang Mengde felt a little uncomfortable.

Although my grandparents are in good physical and mental condition, they are obviously much thinner than last month.

I heard that now in the cafeteria, there is only thin porridge in the morning, and each person has at most one bowl.

At noon, each person had only two steamed buns, no more.

The situation two months ago is completely different from now.

The villagers who used to have greasy faces now start to walk unsteadily and have become much thinner.

He knew that now was just the beginning and the cruelest time had not yet arrived. Life would be the most difficult after all the cornmeal was eaten up.

On weekdays in rural areas, if a family wants to marry a daughter-in-law, they have to prepare a few kilograms of food for the girl's family.

During the difficult three years starting this year, as long as there is something to eat, you can take it home directly.

When I arrived at the yard, before entering the house, I saw Liu Haizhong, not feeling the cold, holding a newspaper and shouting loudly.

"Meng De, you're back just in time. There's a new policy in the newspaper."

Seeing Wang Mengde, Liu Haizhong quickly greeted him.

"Uncle, what's the new policy?"

“Tea has been listed as a second-category commodity by the state. From now on, the amount of tea you can buy will be limited, and you will need to bring your food supplement book with you.

As for pork coupons, starting from this month, they will no longer be distributed at the rate of 6 liang per person per month. Instead, each person will be issued a meat coupon three times in the first, middle and last ten days of the month, with each meat coupon ranging from 1 to 3 liang.

"Uncle, why is the meat ticket not a fixed amount anymore? What's the explanation for this one to three taels?"

Beside her, Aunt Xue quickly asked.

Many other neighbors were also staring at him closely.

Seeing that he had become the focus of the courtyard again, Liu Haizhong was secretly delighted.

Since he failed to become the leader of the steel mill two months ago because of his low academic qualifications and could not compete with another person, the attitude of the people in the yard towards him has obviously changed.

"Ahem, this is one to three taels. It means when there is a lot of meat, we will issue tickets for three taels. If there is little meat, we will only issue tickets for one tael."

Liu Haizhong explained.

"So that's what you mean. I hope that in the future we can give out meat coupons worth three taels each. That way, everyone will get nine taels per month."

The neighbors in the yard all suddenly realized what was going on, and some were already fantasizing about the wonderful life with more meat coupons.

Only Wang Mengde knew that they were overthinking. In the next three years, it would be good enough if each person could have 300 grams of meat to eat every month.

a few days later.

In the laboratory, Wang Mengde carefully approached the test bench and looked at the cheese-colored loose body in front of him, feeling very happy.

The world's first measles vaccine has finally been developed.

(End of this chapter)