Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading disease and infectious expert, credited African-American female scientist Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett for leading vaccine research.

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African-American Scientist Leads Vaccine Research

The federal government has invested billions of dollars in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine that will end the global pandemic. When Pres. Trump visited the National Institutes of Health last March, the leads of the vaccine research explained their mission.

The key to the success of the agency's mission is the 34-year-old African-American female scientist Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. During the "CBS This Morning: Saturday," she told the co-host Michelle Miller that she was just there telling the COVID-19 Task Force about the progress of the vaccine they have been doing.

Just two weeks after Pres. Trump and the White House COVID-19 Task Force did a visit, her team began the first stage of human clinical trials.

She also shared that they took a lot of the knowledge they have gained in the last six years and applied it to a vaccine platform in collaboration with Moderna.

Today, Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine rolled out across the country after it received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration just one week after the agency gave the same authorization to Pfizer-BioNTech.

Read also: How Long Will Moderna Vaccine Protect You From Getting COVID-19? 

Dr. Fauci Credited Corbett for Her Research

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading disease and infectious expert and at the same time the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, credited Dr. Corbett during a webinar for her work in developing the vaccine.

Dr. Fauci said, "The vaccine you are going to be taking was developed by an African American woman and that is just a fact."

It is very important that people will know the people and key persons behind the success of the COVID-19 vaccine because this will boost their confidence in getting the vaccine.

Read more: CDC Says Not To Worry Yet on the New 'USA Variant' of COVID-19 

Dr. Corbett's Background and Interest in Science

Dr. Corbett's interest in science started at an early age but she did not expect that this will make a difference in her life. In a recently published article in CBS News, she said, "To be honest, I didn't realize the level of impact that my visibility might have... I do my work because I love my work."

Dr. Corbett attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore, as a Meyerhoff Scholar, an aggressive program that mentors minorities and women in science.

This is one of the opportunities in her life that helped her to achieve her dreams. Among the graduates of the program is Surgeon General Jerome Adams.

Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, for nearly 30 years, said Dr. Corbett had a strong background in science but the way she connects and talks to people separated her from the rest.

In fact, Dr. Hrabowski also said the country needs more scientists like Dr. Corbett who can connect to people. He also stated, "What we do at UMBC is to support students of color, Black, but also students in general, to make sure they make it in science."