From the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China's CDC has been at the forefront of the fight against the virus, tirelessly pushing forward vaccine research and development. Once the virus behind this "pneumonia of unknown etiology" was isolated and cultured, vaccine research teams leaped into action pursuing five separate R&D routes formulated by the Ministry of Science and Technology. But that was just the beginning. Before a safe and effective vaccine could be produced and dispatched to the front line, a host of technical, industrial and logistical obstacles had to be overcome.