Chapter 250 Chief Consultant of the Expert Group for Health Protection of Meritorious Scientific and Technological Personnel of the Two Bombs, One Satellite Project
Back in the capital, life became like a tightly wound spring.
Gu Baobao plunged headfirst into the medical school's laboratory.
A vaccine research team has been established, and she serves as the team leader, who is an elderly academician with gray hair.
The team consists of a dozen or so people, all of whom are elite personnel drawn from various research institutes.
The task is urgent and the pressure is immense. Smallpox, polio, and measles—these three mountains weighing heavily on the public health of the Republic—must be removed as soon as possible.
Experimental data, culture records, strain stability tests... working sixteen hours a day is the norm.
Of the courses offered by the medical school, she only kept the monthly lecture series on battlefield first aid and special environment medicine.
Every time he gave a lecture, the largest lecture hall was still packed, with people sitting in the aisles with their own small stools.
Her lectures were concise and practical, and her case studies were all based on real injuries. The students' hands were practically flying out of their hands as they took notes.
In the summer of 1966, the first piece of good news arrived.
A breakthrough has been achieved in the large-scale preparation process of oral attenuated live polio vaccine.
The new process reduces vaccine production costs by 40 percent and improves stability by one level.
The Ministry of Health issued an internal commendation notice, listing Gu Baobao's name first among those who made technical contributions.
At the commendation ceremony, the former minister shook her hand, his voice booming:
"Comrade Gu Baobao, you are saving the lives of a generation of children! Your merits benefit the present and future generations!"
Gu Baobao simply smiled, attributing the credit to the collective, to the guidance of the senior academician, and to the tireless efforts of every comrade in the group.
The more humble she was, the more she was valued by her superiors.
Meanwhile, across the ocean, cracks began to appear in Lavoisier's "empire".
First, the initial Angel Wings product experienced widespread failures among the third batch of customers:
Instead of experiencing the expected increase in vitality, the wealthy individuals who took the medication began to exhibit symptoms such as decreased energy and weakened immunity.
Complaints and lawyer's letters flooded Lavoisier's office.
Subsequently, an anonymous analysis report appeared on the desks of the FDA and several top medical journals.
The report details the detection of a rare, unstable ingredient in the Vitality Source series of products. This ingredient, when accumulated in the human body at a certain dose, can cause cellular metabolic disorders.
Lavoisier was furious and denounced it as slander from his competitors.
He ordered the lab to accelerate the launch of the second-generation product, attempting to cover up the crisis with more perfect data.
However, when he sent the sample, which incorporated the core contributions from the East, to an independent testing agency, the report he received sent a chill down his spine:
In the fourth round of accelerated aging tests, the sample exhibited abnormal decay of up to 15%, generating an unknown inert byproduct.
"That's impossible!"
Lavoisier roared in the laboratory.
"Retest! It must be an operational error!"
This can be repeated three times, and the results will be consistent.
Just then, an even more fatal blow came.
The family of a Texas oil tycoon who suffered a stroke and became paralyzed after taking Vitality Source has sued him, seeking nine-figure damages.
The media reacted swiftly, overnight
Lavoisier scam
Deadly Longevity Drug
The headline dominated the front pages of major newspapers.
The funding chain has completely broken down.
Banks froze accounts, partners severed ties, and the lab was shut down.
Lavoisier fled New York in the dead of night, taking only a suitcase full of cash with him.
Three months later, news came back from South America:
Lavoisier was found by a local gang in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He tried to bribe the police with his last bit of money, but was reported.
When the body was found in the stinking ditch, it was unrecognizable, and all the cash in its pockets was gone.
The greedy bubble finally burst, leaving not a trace.
In the autumn of 1966, the health clinic in Qinghetun was completed.
With its blue bricks, gray tiles, and gleaming glass windows, it became the most impressive building in the village.
On the opening day, several groups of people from the county and city came, and reporters from the provincial newspaper carried their cameras and took pictures again and again.
Two signs were hung at the entrance of the health clinic:
One is the "Qinghetun Cooperative Medical Station", and the other is the "Barefoot Doctor Training Pilot Project".
Old Chen put on a brand-new white coat, which Gu Baobao had sent back.
He and three young men selected from the villages officially began practicing medicine.
The medicine cabinet was neatly filled with more than thirty kinds of common medicines, all of which Gu Baobao obtained through special approval from the military hospital and were supplied at affordable prices.
The provincial leaders who came down for research nodded in approval after seeing it:
"This model is great! It achieves great results with minimal investment, solving the major problem of farmers' difficulty in accessing medical care!"
Qinghetun became a model, and Li Guoqiang went to the provincial capital for three meetings. Each time he returned, he was beaming with health.
The villagers walk outside with their backs straight. Our village has a clinic, tractors, and a girl like Gu Baobao!
Gu Baobao heard all of this in the laboratory in the capital.
Every time Lu Zhanming received a letter from his hometown, he would read it to her.
She always listened quietly, then continued looking down at her petri dishes and data records.
Winter came exceptionally early in 1966.
At the end of October, the first snow fell in abundance.
In the early winter chill, a top-secret document was delivered to Gu Baobao's desk.
The document cover was printed with the words "Top Secret" in bright red.
She washed her hands, put on white gloves, and carefully turned it over.
It contained only one page with a few lines of brief handwritten commands:
"Comrade Gu Baobao is hereby appointed as the chief consultant of the expert group for health protection of meritorious scientific and technological personnel of the Two Bombs and One Satellite project."
Effective immediately, this order is to oversee the daily health monitoring, special work-related protection, and emergency medical treatment of relevant meritorious personnel.
The signature is that which commands the utmost respect from the entire national defense science and technology system.
Gu Baobao stared at those few lines of text for a long time.
The snow fell silently outside the window, while the incubator in the laboratory emitted a low hum.
She thought of Tang Zhengnan, whom she had saved at the island hospital; she thought of Zhang Huasheng, whom she had snatched from the jaws of a gun on New Year's Eve; and she thought of those unsung heroes who had given their names and lives to the Gobi Desert and the mountains.
Now, it's her turn to protect those who protect the country.
She picked up her pen and wrote down the new research direction in her lab notebook:
"Research on compound preparations based on special bioactive ingredients for the protection and repair of human functions under strong radiation environment."
This time, she's going to improve the ultimate version of the health-preserving pills!
It's not about prolonging life, but about building a wall of flesh and blood for those most precious minds and hearts in extreme environments.
The experiment has entered its most difficult phase.
Radiation simulation, cell damage model, drug permeability testing... every step is related to human lives and national strategic assets.
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