Chapter 167: Ebola (10)

—What about when it is transmitted through human contact?

The health official from Angola asked Young-Joon.

“We are going to control all the infected patients in Congo,” Young-Joon said.

—It seems like there will be an epidemic in Congo, but are you saying that you will be able to cure all of them?

The secretary of the Ministry of Health in Uganda asked.

“Yes. Congo already has the resources to treat all its citizens,” Young-Joon said. “And I promised Secretary Michelle this, but the Congolese government will not only prevent patients from leaving the country once the epidemic starts, but they will also make it mandatory for citizens from other countries to be vaccinated when they enter Congo. Our goal is to minimize the impact of Ebola in Congo, but also to prevent it from becoming a pandemic.

—But isn’t it possible that there could be some infected people in our country that we don’t know about?

The Angolan health official asked.

“Are you worried about something?”

—Not in particular, but... There are some people who go to Congo for business...

The health official trailed off while avoiding Young-Joon’s gaze.

“That’s right. The people who visit both countries often for business might transport the virus in its incubation period,” Young-Joon said. “But it won’t be enough to start a pandemic.”

—...

“And the Congolese government has compiled an entry list from the past month, which I will share with you. Screen and quarantine those people now. Since the virus isn’t contagious for the twenty-day incubation period, you shouldn’t have to worry about an Ebola outbreak if you quarantine them.”

—...

But the health officials still looked very displeased.

—Doctor Ryu... You developed and produced the vaccine and treatment at A-Bio, right? Could you share some with us?

The Ugandan secretary asked.

“Unfortunately, I cannot. Both the treatment and vaccine are currently only produced by A-Bio, and we have an exclusive contract with the Congolese government because of the urgency of their situation.”

—We will produce it ourselves if you give us permission to produce it, with royalties of course.

“Then I will give you a license. But I’ll warn you in advance that the production process is very particular. It won’t be easy to adapt it to the facilities of local companies. It will likely take at least a few months.”

—...

“But if you do as I say, you won’t really need the cure. If you set up the anthracis fence, you won’t have an Ebola outbreak in your countries. If you have a small number of infected patients among travelers, you just need to buy a small amount of the treatment from Congo.”

—Um... Alright...

The health officials replied.

“Or is there something bothering you?”

—No, nothing.

“We are transporting a large amount of the anthracis fence to Kenya right now. We will sell it to you immediately when you contact us,” Young-Joon said.

—Thank you.

Young-Joon left the video conference. When everyone left, Young-Joon leaned back in his hotel chair and clicked his tongue.

—Why?

Rosaline asked.

“There will be quite a lot of cases that they won’t be able to control.”

—No. There are no problems with the anthracis fence. Ebola cannot cross it naturally.

“We can also prevent human-to-human transmission if we hand over Congo’s entry list, but...” Young-Joon said. “There will be a lot of people who entered illegally. The people who are taking advantage of the civil war in eastern Congo to come in and loot resources.”

—Oh.

Rosaline nodded slowly.

—And they’re going to have an Ebola outbreak in their countries because they will not be able to control the people not on the entry list?

“Yeah.”

—But even so, there won’t be a major outbreak because the infection route will be destroyed by the anthracis fence.

“Yeah. We can definitely stop a pandemic, and the outbreak in nearby countries will be much smaller than the one that was in 2014, so it will just cause some commotion, nothing more.”

—Yes, probably.

“But they won’t be able to ignore it. And they will have to beg Congo for the treatment, but I don’t know if Congo will give it to those looters.”

—They deserve it. Why would you fuel a civil war in another country, get people killed and sneak in to loot their resources?

“They deserve it...”

—There is something I’ve noticed about the human world ever since I met you.

“What is it?”

—Disease, which people hate the most, is the only equal thing that humans experience.

“...”

—Your world is full of injustice and inequality, but look.

Rosaline said.

—Ebola infects everyone fairly; it doesn’t discriminate between the rich, poor, looters, the government, the rebels, or ethnic groups.

“But richer and more developed countries have good prevention systems, so they don’t get Ebola.”

—That’s an inequality that humans made.

Rosaline said.

—The virus itself can infect the president of the United States as well. The inequality that humans made just limited the Ebola virus to Africa.

Young-Joon could not argue with Rosaline because she was correct.

Young-Joon smiled bitterly.

“Everyone should be equally free from diseases. And that’s what we study for.”

* * *

—We are doing pretty good for now.

A few days later, Young-Joon was watching central Africa through Simulation Mode in his hotel room. The virus was spreading like crazy. The virus was mostly coming from the dead animal carcasses.

Originally, the Ebola virus in Congo used anthracis as a medium and amplified the epidemic, like they were going through an alternation of generations. After severely contaminating the environment, the Ebola virus hid in the anthracis to amplify itself again, then popped back out to wreak havoc. The anthracis acted like a bunker for Ebola, which was vulnerable to the sun’s UV rays and oxidizing environments. Ebola used anthracis as a base to start an aggressive war to conquer.

However, the virus was unable to cross the Ebola vaccine that was spread by governments in Rwanda, Angola, and Uganda. The anthracis in the jungle were steadily absorbing and eliminating the Ebola virus.

Young-Joon looked at the infection rate by color in Simulation Mode. Congo was black, and the rest of the jungles near it were white. The virus wasn’t going to spread, and there wasn’t going to be a pandemic.

—You succeeded. Congratulations.

“We still have to monitor it. What about Congo? Run the simulation there,” Young-Joon said to Rosaline.

Now, major cities in Congo including Kinshasa showed up in front of his eyes. Congo announced that they had three hundred thousand cases, but the simulation showed that they actually had over a million cases. The rest were either people who didn’t have symptoms yet because the virus was still in its incubation period or those who were too scared to go to the hospital.

However, the Ministry of Public Health in Congo promoted the Ebola treatment under Michelle’s leadership.

—Free Ebola treatment.

They attracted patients by distributing large quantities of the treatment they purchased from A-Bio for free. Michelle deserved to be part of the GSC; her leadership in disease management was exceptional. Her ability not as a scientist, but as the head of health policies in Congo was something that even Young-Joon couldn’t mimic.

‘Now, I want to scout her and bring her to Korea.’

Michelle was incredible at sending exactly the right supplies to local hospitals and using aggressive marketing tactics to explain Ebola and attract patients. The Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency also had all kinds of brilliant people, but Michelle would still stand out among them.

Treatable and free: these two phrases that seemed completely unrelated to Ebola, swept across the towns of Congo. Health workers went to rural areas where it was difficult for patients to get to hospitals with the treatment. The number of vaccine recipients grew rapidly. It was only a few hundred people a few days ago, but now there were almost five hundred thousand people who were vaccinated.

* * *

The mayor of Maibi was a passionate supporter of Paulo. His family had been wiped out by rebels, so he hated Phillip with a deep-seated grudge. He believed that the Ebola outbreak was a fantasy that Phillip created; like Paulo said, he thought that it would never happen.

“... I was wrong.”

Phillip tried to warn the Congolese people about Ebola, even giving up reelection to do so. Now, he realized how sincere Phillip was.

[The Constitutional Court tentatively postpones the reelection.]

The mayor saw a news article.

We can’t hold a vote in a national disaster like this.’

The mayor read the reports from the health authorities. Michelle, the secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, had sent two tons of the treatment to Maibi. Thanks to that, not a single person had died in Maibi even though the number of cases exploded—even though the dreaded diseases, which had a ninety percent fatality rate, swept across the city.

In addition to that, Maibi was also being vaccinated.

‘To be honest, Michelle and Phillip stopped this Ebola epidemic.’

The city of Maibi was deeply indebted to them.

The mayor picked up the phone and pressed Paulo’s number. However, Paulo could not pick up because he was meeting Phillip in Kinshasa.

“The entire country is crazy right now,” Paulo said.

“Yes, it is.”

Phillip cut off a piece of his cake with his fork and ate it. Paulo, who was watching him, spoke.

“How did you know that Ebola was coming?”

“I didn’t know,” Phillip said.

“You didn’t know?”

“I’m not a scientist, so how could I have known? Of course, I didn’t. But I trusted Secretary Michelle and Doctor Ryu Young-Joon.”

“...”

“I was keeping a close eye on a few infectious diseases including Ebola. Then, Secretary Michelle came in with a serious look on her face and reported that Ebola seemed to be infecting anthracis. I’m sure you saw it as well, Commissioner Paulo,” Phillip said. “And since Doctor Ryu Young-Joon owed us, we took the only opportunity we had to invite him to Congo. He also agreed with Secretary Michelle, and he did some experiments and reported to us that it was true.”

“...”

“I didn’t do much. Actually, I failed at everything I tried to do. I even gave up on running for reelection to convince the people about the dangers of Ebola, but it wasn’t effective,” Phillip said. “This is when I feel the helplessness of a politician, since the people who actually solved the problem were Doctor Ryu Young-Joon, Secretary Michelle, and the scientists they led.”

But it was Phillip who had invited Michelle to Congo and given her a ministerial position, as well as the one who brought in Young-Joon by allowing the exportation of bonobos. Paulo knew that as well.

“It’s because of me,” he said. “People not believing in Ebola. That was my fault.”

“Because you really didn’t believe in Ebola,” Phillip said.

“...”

“And I think that’s fair enough.”

“No, it’s not. You know what people are saying about me, right?” Paulo said.

Paulo was right. After the Ebola epidemic, voices condemning Paulo spread across the country. The people who supported Paulo, saying that Ebola wasn’t going to happen, were now horrified and demanded he be held accountable. Those who had remained neutral or supported Phillip berated Paulo; it seemed like they were ready to drag Paulo to the town square and execute him.

“It’s all my fault,” Paulo said, depressed. “I’ve been focusing all my attention on the democratic election that I politicized the issue.”

“...”

Phillip ate another piece of his cake.

“I did some research about Doctor Ryu Young-Joon, and this is what he said,” Phillip said. “He said to separate politics from science. He said that science should be an absolutely objective discipline.”

“...”

“I really liked that. We’ve been bogged down by political confusion from ethnic conflicts, civil wars between the government and rebels, and dictatorships. It’s become a world where we can’t tell what is right and wrong anymore. But not science. This absolutely objective discipline searches for the right answer without any political bias, and sometimes, it really does find it.”

“... I see.”

“Commissioner Paulo. I want Congo to become a country of science. “

“...”

Paulo let out a small sigh. He finished his glass of water, then said with difficulty, “Mr. Phillip, since you’re not running, I’ll probably be in the election alone.”

“I suppose so.”

“I am thinking of dropping out. Since the reelection has been tentatively postponed, I can probably give up now.”

“Hm.”

It was a possibility because public opinion about Paulo was very negative. However, Phillip didn’t think Paulo would say it here himself.

“There won’t be a suitable candidate left if I drop out, so the Constitutional Court will probably start over from the candidate selection process. They also have the justification to do so,” Paulo said. “And because you have shown something, no one will be opposed to you running again.”

“...”

“This is my complete defeat, and I learned a lot. I look forward to working with you.”