Nico Yang, G8, RDF International School

During the 2020 Spring Festival, while everyone was celebrating the New Year, the coronavirus broke our joy. Thousands of doctors were busy saving people’s lives.

During that period, we stayed at home most of the time and wore masks whenever we went. This reminded me of the Chinese mask inventor Wu Liande, who is also a pioneer of modern medicine.

In the 1910s, many Chinese laborers in Northeast China were hired by Russian bosses to catch marmots. Some workers ate the marmots when they caught them.

This was how the Northeast plague began. Soon, people began to die in Harbin. Wu was assigned to take charge of the plague prevention program.

He made many valuable suggestions, such as strengthening railway quarantines, constructing isolation hospitals, cremating plague victims’ bodies, etc. Moreover, he invented the mask to prevent infection, and organized people to isolate themselves at home. Under Wu’s leadership, the plague was soon brought under control.

In April 1911, the plague ended. It was the first time that humans had solved an epidemic in a big city. Thanks to the great man Wu, we can face the COVID-19 with an easier mind as we know how to prevent infection in an efficient way.

We should all remember this great man in our hearts.