Half a year had passed since the paper was published. During that time, virus mutations discovered around the world had all remained within the model's predicted range. This gave the global scientific community confidence that the pandemic could be brought to an end, while also elevating Chen Yuanguang's reputation in academia to new heights.
If the Gates Foundation's offer of a million-dollar annual salary to recruit Chen Yuanguang had happened to anyone else, the news would have remained largely confined to China. Foreign outlets might have given it a small mention at most, without causing much of a stir.
But because it was Chen Yuanguang, after the news had fully fermented domestically, mainstream foreign media such as Fox, CNN, and the New York Times rushed to cover it. They also linked the Gates Foundation's offer with Chen Yuanguang's research achievements, pushing his public standing among people worldwide to another level.
He had become something of a minor celebrity abroad as well.
"An outstanding Chinese man and exceptional results. It is scientists like these who keep our world from becoming even worse." This was a positive, reasonable comment beneath a tweet related to a New York Times report.
"Those damned Chinese are stealing our jobs. America should restrict Chinese people and people from other countries from entering. America belongs to Americans!" This was an extremely agitated comment beneath a tweet related to a Fox report.
"Chinese research results? Did they steal America's research achievements?" This was a comment beneath a tweet related to CNN. Their traditional specialty.
Different media outlets had different audiences, and their reporting naturally carried different biases, further filtering their audiences. The media and their audiences reinforced one another, eventually creating one information cocoon after another.
"Yuanguang, congratulations. It was an excellent film. Compared with the first one,