Chapter 10: Treating the Flu (2)

‘A virus? Like the virus that I know?’

A virus was about 1/2000 of the width of hair. Some thought it was similar in size to bacteria, but it wasn’t; if bacteria were elephants, viruses would be mice. That was how small viruses were.

Because viruses were so small and simple, it was confusing as to whether they were living things or not. It was true that the scientific community hadn’t decided if viruses were living beings or not and that they were withholding their decision.

Viruses were primitive and dust-like, making it difficult to observe a virus, even through a microscope, if the scientist wasn’t skilled enough, or if the lens was flimsy.

‘But I saw it with my own eyes.’

Young-Joon tried to comprehend this insanity.

[Cell Fitness: 1.7]

His fitness fell by 0.1.

‘Damn it. I didn’t even want to see what the Flu A virus looked like, but it showed me it by using 0.1 fitness.’

Was Rosaline reacting with some defense mechanism because Young-Joon was exposed to this virus from a sneeze?

“Are you okay?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.

“I’m fine.” Young-Joon shook his hand.

Song Ji-Hyun tilted her head in confusion.

The old man let out some air through his nose and said to her, “Please give me some cold medicine.”

Song Ji-Hyun glanced back at the old man.

“What are your symptoms?”

“I have a cough and a stuffy nose.”

“What about a fever?”

“A little, I think.”

Young-Joon stared at the side of the old man’s face in bewilderment.

‘He can’t get normal cold medicine.’

Some people thought that the flu was just a bad cold, but they were strictly different diagnoses.

“Let’s see your temperature.”

Song Ji-Hyun took out a thermometer from a drawer and put it to the old man’s ear. It read 37.4 degrees.

“You have a mild fever,” Song Ji-Hyun said. “How long have you been sick?”

“About five days.

Cough!

”

The old man coughed at the end of his sentence.

“And you haven’t been to the hospital?”

“Yes. I had a fever, but it came down. I am coughing a lot, and I have a lot of phlegm.”

“Then I’ll give you some regular cold medicine. Some expectorant and...”

“Wait!” Young-Joon shouted instinctively. Song Ji-Hyun and the old man stared at him in surprise.

“Um...”

‘How do I explain this?’

Young-Joon couldn’t just say that he saw the Influenza A virus in the saliva the old man spat out as he sneezed.

“If it’s been five days... Shouldn’t most cold symptoms... Go away?” Young-Joon stammered as he asked Song Ji-Hyun. “If you’re still really sick, then... Um, the flu is going around now. Maybe you should go see a doctor...”

“Seeing a doctor would give you the most accurate results,” Song Ji-Hyun told the old man.

“But if it has been five days, it’s too late to prescribe something like Tamiflu, even if it is the flu. You probably won’t get an antiviral drug even if you go to the internal medicine department above us.”

“It’s too late to use Tamiflu?” Young-Joon said.

“Yes.”

Young-Joon was a little flustered.

This was the difference between a scientist, who developed drugs, and a pharmacist, who prescribed them. A scientist knew the detailed mechanism of the drug, as well as endless experimental data that most pharmacists and doctors have never seen. They also knew other competitive drugs as well.

However, their knowledge about a drug drastically declined if it wasn’t in their field; they basically knew a little more than average. And Young-Joon, a biologist, knew almost nothing about something like the effects of Tamiflu, a new, synthetic chemical drug, as all he knew about it was what he learned about during his biochemistry class in university. Young-Joon’s major was in synthetic biology.

“Tamiflu is only effective if it is given within forty-eight hours after infection. It’s when the virus is actively replicating in the cell and causing high fevers,” Song Ji-Hyun replied. “If someone recovered to a mild fever of about thirty-seven degrees, prescribing Tamiflu is meaningless because it means that the person has already recovered to some extent.”

She gave the old man the regular cold medicine she was initially going to prescribe him.

“I’ll prescribe you something that will help with the pain you’re experiencing from the immune response. It’s an antihistamine and an expectorant. Take this three times a day, two after each meal. And this one...”

Young-Joon was a little embarrassed as he watched Song Ji-Hyun prescribe the medicine like an expert. While he was reflecting on how he interfered so presumptuously, the old man took the medicine and walked out.

“Have a great day.”

It was just Song Ji-Hyun and Young-Joon left in the pharmacy again.

“You, a stem cell major, knew so much about probiotics, but you don’t know so much about new synthetic drugs like Tamiflu.” Song Ji-Hyun snickered.

“I’m no good at chemistry.” Young-Joon also chuckled.

“You only do bio, then.”

“Yes.”

“New biological drugs. It has huge potential.”

“Really?”

“Of course. The bio-industry will turn the pharmaceutical market upside down.”

“Hey. I've heard things like that ever since I was in high school, and it’s been four years since I got my doctorate.”

“The future has just yet to come. Hm, I wonder why?” Song Ji-Hyun asked with her arm on the counter and her chin resting on her hand.

“Our principal scientist said that it’s because there hasn’t been a revolutionary genius in the biology field.”

“A revolutionary genius?” Young-Joon tilted his head in confusion.

“Yes. There were amazing biologists, but there were no geniuses who broke through all the frustrating problems in the field and brought out the potential. Someone like Einstein,” Song Ji-Hyun replied. “What’s the point of us scientists at pharmaceutical companies making flu vaccines every year? The flu virus evolves every year, making the previous vaccines useless.”

“That’s true.” Young-Joon agreed.

“Did you know? Theoretically, we could eradicate the flu with the current flu vaccine,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

Young-Joon nodded his head.

“If we had enough vaccines and manpower,” Young-Joon replied.

If seven billion people, the entire world’s population, got the flu vaccine all at once, the flu virus would not be able to infect anyone as everyone would be resistant to it. Viruses could only replicate by infecting people, but what would happen if they had no one to infect?

Extinction.

Just like how the African Black Rhinoceros were wiped out, all populations of the Flu A virus would disappear from the Earth forever.

But why were new vaccines made and administered every year?

It was because seven billion people could not get vaccinated all at once. For example, if people began to vaccinate people in Asia after vaccinating people in the Americas with the newly developed vaccine, the flu virus in Europe would have already evolved. The vaccine wouldn’t work on the newly-evolved virus, so by the time they finished vaccinating Asia and starting in Europe, the new flu virus would begin to circulate in the Americas.

Simply put, the reason why humanity could not eradicate the flu virus was because the speed at which the virus evolved was much faster than the speed at which people got vaccinated.

“We need a solution that addresses the root of the problem,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“Maybe an ingenious biologist will show up and revolutionize the concept of vaccines. Eradicate the flu just like that or something.”

Song Ji-Hyun’s eyes sparkled in excitement.

“Eradication of the flu...” Young-Joon said.

“Like how humanity eradicated smallpox and anthrax a long time ago.”[1]

‘Should I open something about the flu in Rosaline’s status window?’

“Oh, right. What pharmaceutical company do you work for? Can I ask?” Song Ji-Hyun said to Young-Joon.

“What about you?”

“It’s a company called Celligener.”

‘Just what I thought.’

Celligener was a small venture pharmaceutical company that only had about thirty people. People in the industry were shocked because they created an amazing treatment for liver cancer that passed stage one of clinical trials. Of course, Kim Hyun-Taek was one of the people who were shocked, and he had somehow made Celligener’s management do what he wanted and bought the drug.

“The drug A-Gen took from you. Was it a new drug for liver cancer?” Young-Joon asked.

“Oh? How do you know?”

Song Ji-Hyun’s eyes widened. She said, “We worked really hard to develop that drug. But A-Gen took it and destroyed it.”

“...”

“At first, we thought A-Gen was going to develop it and use it. We thought they would do it better than us because they have more experience and have a good production pipeline. Although, there was also pressure from A-Gen’s management, and money problems, too,” Song Ji-Hyun said. “We were naive. A-Gen bought that drug to destroy it. If we knew that, we would’ve done anything to stop our company from selling it.”

“...I see.”

Song Ji-Hyun thought for a moment with a reminiscing look on her face, then said, “Phew. I can’t believe I’m talking about something like this with a stranger. I’m sorry, it was stupid.”

She chuckled.

“No, it’s alright,” Young-Joon replied.

“So what about you? Where do you work?”

“...”

Young-Joon could not answer. How could he just say that he goes to A-Gen in this situation? Even worse, he was the one who was responsible for the liver cancer drug; it all started with him giving management a report that a new competitive drug was developed. Should he talk about cursing at Kim Hyun-Taek and getting transferred... That whole ordeal?

Young-Joon couldn’t open his mouth.

The fact that Celligener was a small company with about thirty people but still developed such an amazing anticancer drug suggested that most of the people there would have worked extremely hard to create it. And Song Ji-Hyun would have been one of them.

“Where is it? Hm?”

“Um... Actually...”

Just as Young-Joon was about to tell her, the pharmacy doors swung open, and a bunch of patients came in. There were four old women who had come down together after visiting the internal medicine department above.

“Wow, the pharmacist here changed to a young lady.”

“Whatever happened to the one before?”

They all rushed over to the counter and pushed their prescriptions toward Song Ji-Hyun all at once.

“Just one moment. I’ll make each one in order.”

Song Ji-Hyun took all the papers and went into the production room.

Young-Joon had already left the pharmacy when Song Ji-Hyun was done making the patient’s cold medicine.

* * *

Bzzz!

Young-Joon’s phone rang on his way out of the pharmacy. A new article about the issues he had set notifications for sent him a message.

[The seasonal flu is going around. Vaccination...]

Young-Joon only read the first sentence of the article on the preview screen, but he remembered what happened at the pharmacy a little while ago.

‘What if I cure the flu?’

Young-Joon remembered how much money the inventor of Tamiflu made.

After returning home, Young-Joon turned on Rosaline’s status window straight away.

“I want to cure Flu A,” He said.

[Microworld Focus: Would you like to gain insight into Influenza A? You have the following choices:

1. Biological mechanism of flu infection. (Fitness consumption rate: 0.05/second)

2. Cure for Influenza A. (Fitness consumption: 0.9)

3. Strategy for eradicating Influenza A. (Fitness consumption: 1.5)

‘What?’

Young-Joon’s eyes widened.

‘Eradication?’

Young-Joon thought for a bit. Even if he selected the third option, there was a high chance that it would be something that he was incapable of doing. He didn’t have to use fitness on the first option because he could find that information by searching it on the internet.

‘Should I go with the second option?’

However, he was too curious about the strategy to eradicate the flu. And his fitness was recovering 0.1 every half an hour. If things didn’t work out, all he would have to do was save some fitness without using it for an afternoon or so.

After giving it some thought, Young-Joon selected the third option.

1. Anthrax isn’t really eradicated in real life. ?