A Chinese doctor shocked people all over the world when she injected herself an untested coronavirus vaccine.
Researchers have been trying to find ways to beat the killer virus but vaccines usually take a long time to go through animal trials and testing.
However, Dr. Chen Wei, 54, skipped the rest of the steps and injected the untested vaccine on herself.
She stood in front of a photographer as another person pumped the vaccine into her body.
The major-general in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and world-renowned epidemiologist wanted to show that the country was moving fast with the new vaccine.
According to reports, six other members of the team have been injected with the untested vaccine.
Photos of the event were shared on the PLA’s Weibo, a social media platform, but the post has since been removed.
Wei said to China’s state-run TV network: “We are doing all we can to put the recombinant vaccine that we are developing into clinical application. We must strive to bring the vaccine we are working on to clinical trial and application, providing strong technical support for winning this battle.”
In an interview with 10daily, professor Glenn Browning from the University of Melbourne said: “In a normal situation these things take years and [scientists] are set a very high level of safety and criteria.
“They must provide clear evidence they’ll work. Given how important or dangerous [the situation is] you might have to shorten the pathway and accept you’re not going to take the same level of safety.
“They will take the shortest pathway possible to show it induces an antibody that can stop the virus. This could be quite a quick process, faster than we’ve ever seen before.”
Wei made headlines around the world in 2014 when she was one of those credited with developing the first gene-based vaccine for Ebola. In the early 2000s, she also helped fight the SARS outbreak.
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Replaced!