Chapter 75: The Conqueror of AIDS (9)

A hundred people signed up to participate in the live lecture and debate. They couldn’t take more than that as the studio was a very unique place: it was Room 411, a lab in Lab One at A-Gen. This lab was made and used for science high schools[1] or university students to observe experiments.

A-Gen had made this in order to improve the company’s image, pushing the slogan for the popularization of science and societal contribution. It was much larger than a regular lab, and it had a structure that was fit for a lecture, such as having a separate podium at the front of the room.

Young-Joon wanted to do the lecture program here.

—Filming in a lab?

Producer Na Sung-Jin found it ridiculous when he first heard the idea, but after thinking about it some more, he felt like it was actually going to be a very entertaining sight. The background would target the taste of the viewers who wanted to see the star scientist. It would be more interesting than meeting Young-Joon on a podium with a suit on, right?

—I’ll get it ready. We will also gather the audience like you want.

* * *

Young-Joon borrowed the pAFM, the super-resolution visible photoactivated atomic force microscope, from Lab One. It was an optical microscope that could see one hundred thousandth of a piece of hair using light. It had outstanding performance among existing optical microscopes, and it was pretty expensive as well. A-Gen had this kind of thing because well, they were A-Gen, but Young-Joon had to wait a little in order to borrow this equipment.

There were a few more things that needed to be set up in Room 411 for his lecture. Ten days were needed in order to gather those things and the audience.

In the meantime, Young-Joon headed to India. Karamchand Pharmatics was now starting the production of the treatment, and Young-Joon was asked to conduct a technical inspection of the system.

In the meantime in Korea, another issue was unfolding noisily. Professor Sung Yo-Han, the optometry specialist of the next-generation hospital, opened a press conference. He was not alone; beside him was the most famous patient in the whole world right now, Ardip from India.

He was the first patient in the world to use the glaucoma treatment kit, the first commercialized stem cell therapy, the patient who got a tumor in his eye and was almost sacrificed by Schumatix’s evil scheme, and the patient who informed the world of A-Bio’s advanced new technology of automatic stem cell death. The whole world was angered at the horrible things Schuamtix did to him, and voices supporting Ardip came from everywhere.

The hashtag, “PRAYFORARDIP” dominated social media, and countless intellectuals, celebrities, and politicians criticized Schumatix and issued statements praying for Ardip’s recovery.

How many people would experience such ups and downs as an ordinary patient? Among patients, he was as famous as Timothy Ray Brown. As the international medical industry was busy with the HIV eradication project, there were countless people who were curious about what happened to Ardip after the incident.

“We have cured Ardip’s glaucoma at the next-generation hospital,” Sung Yo-Han announced.

Click! Click!

Flashes poured onto them from all over. The reporters stared at Ardip with curious eyes. It was understandable that they were releasing this as this was an issue related to the confidence in the glaucoma treatment product. But was there a reason to open a press conference and bring the patient himself just for that?

Professor Sung Yo-Han said to the puzzled reporters, “Ardip told me he wanted to have a press conference. That is why I arranged this. The professional translator that was prepared by A-Bio will deliver the patient’s message.”

Sung Yo-Han handed Ardip, who looked nervous, the mic.

“Feel free to talk.”

“Y… Yes…”

Ardip gulped as his hands trembled. Dozens of reporters were staring at him. As he had lived as an insignificant and poor citizen, the interest was so overwhelming that it felt like he was being crushed.

But he had to say this for Young-Joon and for the women at the red-light district that looked after his life until now.

Ardip teared up even before he opened his mouth.

“I heard that Doctor RYu is developing an HIV vaccine. I also heard that there are a lot of people who are against it. I saw it. I saw it with my own two eyes because I can see now. They were petitioning in front of the next-generation hospital.”

The reporters look shocked. It was because they thought he would criticize Schuamtix, praise A-Bio, or talk about the glaucoma treatment, but Ardip began talking about the HIV vaccine out of the blue.

“Please don’t do that. Please. I beg you. You don’t know what kind of disease AIDS is. I grew up in Kamathipura in Mumbai, India,” Ardip said. “Kamathipura is like hell. It’s the worst red-light district in the world, and that place is infested with AIDS.”

Kamathipura was the biggest and oldest brothel in Asia. It was Hell where once someone came in, they could never get out. There were about twenty thousand prostitutes that lived there. A significant portion of them were minors, but there were too many that it was hard to estimate. There were even children under the age of ten.

Some women came to this place on their own after reaching the verge of starving to death from poverty, some were sold here by fraud, and some were kidnapped from Nepal and handed over by human trafficking. There were also women who were born here and were raised as prostitutes.

Usually, women would be kidnapped or sold when they were in middle school in Korean age, and locked in a 3 pyung[2] express our deepest regrets as alumni of this school, and…]

The conservative organizations were anxious at the different atmosphere and strange public opinion. The GAHIV homepage sneakily changed their goal from the rejection of the development of the HIV vaccine to rejection of the use of the HIV vaccine in Korea.

Time flew by, and it was the day of the live show. In Room 411 of Lab One at A-Gen, Young-Joon went up to the podium in front of one hundred people and a dozen cameras.

“Hello. I am Ryu Young-Joon from A-Bio,” said Young-Joon as a greeting. “A few days ago, I visited Karamchand Pharmatics in India. I was asked for technical advice on the production of Karampia, an AIDS drug. But in the meantime, something quite noisy happened in Korea,” Young-Joon said. “I completely understand how Ardip feels. And now, I have a sense of responsibility to develop the HIV vaccine as soon as possible and distribute it to Kamathipura and the world.”

Kim Pil-Young felt his palms sweat.

Young-Joon stared right at the audience.

“Before we go into the lecture, I want to ask you. Is there anyone here who is against my research?”

In the silence, Kim Pil-Young slowly raised his hand.

“Why are you against it?” Young-Joon asked.

His voice was not aggressive in the slightest; it really seemed like he was asking out of curiosity.

Kim Pil-Young replied, “Vaccines… are drugs that haven’t been proven safe.”

“Why do you think so?”

“There’s a paper that a British doctor wrote. It was published in Lancet, a famous medical journal. It talks about how the thimerosal contained in the MMR vaccine causes autism in children.”

“That paper was fabricated. The British General Medical Council criticized that fact in 1998. There was a record that five out of the twelve patients were already diagnosed with underdevelopment. And mistakes were found in hospital records for the remaining seven cases as well. That was why Lancet withdrew the paper,” Young-Joon said. “And that doctor was stripped of his medical license from the British Medical Association because of fabrication. Do you know that as well?”

“... Isn’t that because of the pressure from pharmaceutical companies?”

“The fact that patient information was fabricated in that paper is explained in detail in a paper published in the British Medical Journal in 2010.”

“I don’t believe that paper.”

“Then how can you trust the paper that Lancet withdrew, stomping on their own pride, and that the General Medical Council criticized as being false?”

Kim Pil-Young tried to say something, but didn’t. Then, he said, “The HPV vaccine is mandatory, but even if you don’t get the vaccine, only 0.007 percent of people get cervical cancer. I’m saying that you don’t need to get the vaccine. This is the statistic released by the American Cancer Society. There are only twelve thousand cervical cancer patients among one hundred seventy million American women. Why do we have to get the vaccine while taking the risks for side effects when this is the case?”

“Can you say that in front of twelve thousand patients?” Young-Joon grinned. “We can discuss further about the gains and losses of vaccines, but let’s find out about the more clear-cut things,” Young-Joon said. “I am also curious if A-Bio’s HIV vaccine is really dangerous, if it has side effects.”

He pulled out a small vial from the drawer.

“The thing in this vial is the HIV vaccine. It is the HIV vaccine we have developed: the one that we have completed the formulation of, and the one that will enter clinical trials soon. You can be immune to HIV if you inject five milliliters into your veins,” Young-Joon said. “A week ago, I administered this to my own body.”

The crowd gasped. Producer Na Sung-Jin was surprised at the shocking news.

“Now, let’s see the effects. Let’s see what kind of antibodies are in my blood, and whether it can destroy HIV,” Young-Joon said. “I think that there will be a limit to delivering its safety and efficacy with words. So today, I will show you myself.”

Young-Joon walked to the front of the microscope.

“This is called a super-resolution visible photoactivated atomic force microscope. This has such a high resolution that you can take pictures of viruses. A-Gen modified the equipment so that it could take videos.”

Young-Joon pulled out another vial.

“And the thing in here is an active form of HIV.”

Young-Joon drew up one milliliter of the virus.”

“Doctor Ryu!”

Horrified, Na Sung-Jin shouted as he got up from his seat. But he was too late. As everyone was in shock, Young-Joon injected the virus into his arm.

The lab was filled with silence. The audience was frozen.

Young-Joon stared at them with a calm face.

“I will not release my vaccine only in AIDS-risk areas in developing cultures and conduct clinical trials there when there is so much resistance because of its danger,” Young-Joon said. “But also, I will not take a defensive stand against this vaccine development. As Ardip said, people in high-risk areas need this technology as soon as possible. That is why I am administering and testing it myself.”

Young-Joon switched the syringe and drew blood from his arm. He mixed in a dye that stained white blood cells into his blood and put a droplet on the glass slide. Then, he turned on the microscope. A video of the virus rushing to the huge white blood cells was shown on the large screen.

“Let’s see together what happens to the virus.”

1. Science high schools are a special type of school where there is a large focus on science and technology. You must qualify to attend. ?

2. A Korean unit of size. It is roughly equal to 107 square feet.[ref] room. The room would be small, and the ceilings would be so low that they wouldn’t even be able to stand up fully. Sometimes, they would stay in that windowless room for years and never be able to come up. These women lived and prostituted in this place, which was not that much different from an animal pen.

Also, these women shared prostitution beds with each other because they didn’t have their own. From dawn until they went to sleep, these women had to take customers, no matter if they were on their period, pregnant, or had a miscarriage.

The money they received for this was around a few hundred won, but most of it was taken from them as a room fee by gang members. To maintain order, they used violence, verbal abuse, and even electrical torture.

But there was something even scarier than that. The true ruler of terror that reigned over that region was not people, but a virus. The infection rate of HIV was sixty percent; half of the people who lived there were suffering from AIDS.

Everyone fell into despair when the women in the next room, which was divided by a cardboard partition, got sick. It was unimaginably painful that this disease, which infected the only people these women could rely on and consider as family, was an infectious disease. It was the horrid enemy that robbed them of their last strand of hope and their affection and care for each other. AIDS divided people from people; it was the devil that took away life and hope at the same time.

From a ten-year-old child to an elderly in their sixties, this disease did not discriminate. It killed the gang members who ruled over the women, the rich tourists from strong nations who visited Kamathipura, and the women living there.

The worst case was to give birth to a baby while being infected with HIV. The baby would have HIV from the moment it was born. It was sinful that it was born into that hellhole, but the mother was also giving it HIV.

“AIDS is not what you think it is,” Ardip said while tears ran down his face. “That infection is a curse. It is the devil that takes away the last strand of hope from people who have nothing. I heard everything the people who are against the vaccine said. The things about the side effects or homosexuality increasing.”

Ardip bit his lower lip.

“How… Why does that matter? Even if that is true, is that a reason to stop the vaccine development? I have been blinded by glaucoma, and I have a limp in my left leg from a stroke. But still, I’m more afraid of AIDS. When you go to sleep, you don’t worry about whether you were infected by HIV or not. You are not in terror at the news that someone is coughing in the morning. That is why people in developed countries can worry about the side effects and resist vaccines,” Ardip said. “Please let him exile that disease from Kamathipura. I beg you. Please do not stop Doctor Ryu. The people who live there are like family to me. Please rescue those people.”

Ardip came out of chair and begged them, bowing on the floor. Sung Yo-Han quickly got him off the floor and settled the situation down.

“We will not be receiving any questions for the condition of our patient.”

* * *

Ardip’s appeal about the place called Kamathipura and the situation of AIDS there had quite an impact. The issue about AIDS cure and HIV vaccines was heated. Kim Pil-Young was also shocked as he heard firsthand from a local survivor that the infection rate of HIV was sixty percent.

The first place where the atmosphere changed was Jungyoon University. The booth where they were petitioning was in pieces. A poster with a long message written by students was put up in the Central Library.

[Recently, we have seen a group on campus leading the movement against the development of the HIV vaccine and campaigning for signatures. The biotechnology major students, batch of 2019,[ref]This is the Korean equivalent of “Class of…” in university, but the year is when they enter, not graduate. ?