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Super Genius DNA-Chapter 10: Treating the Flu (2)
This chaptπr is updated by π―π§πππππ«π·πΈπΏππ΅.ππΈπΆ
Chapter 10: Treating the Flu (2)
βA virus? Like the virus that I know?β f reeweb novel.com
A virus was about 1/2000 of the width of hair. Some thought it was similar in size to bacteria, but it wasnβt; 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 hadnβt 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 wasnβt skilled enough, or if the lens was flimsy.
βBut I saw it with my own eyes.β
Young-Joon tried to comprehend this insanity.
[Cell Fitness: 1.7]
His fitness fell by 0.1.
βDamn it. I didnβt even want to see what the Flu A virus looked like, but it showed me it by using 0.1 fitness.β
Was Rosaline reacting with some defense mechanism because Young-Joon was exposed to this virus from a sneeze?
βAre you okay?β Song Ji-Hyun asked.
βIβm fine.β 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, βPlease give me some cold medicine.β
Song Ji-Hyun glanced back at the old man.
βWhat are your symptoms?β
βI have a cough and a stuffy nose.β
βWhat about a fever?β
βA little, I think.β
Young-Joon stared at the side of the old manβs face in bewilderment.
βHe canβt get normal cold medicine.β
Some people thought that the flu was just a bad cold, but they were strictly different diagnoses.
βLetβs see your temperature.β ππ§πππππ«ππΈπΏππ.π¬πΈπΆ
Song Ji-Hyun took out a thermometer from a drawer and put it to the old manβs ear. It read 37.4 degrees.
βYou have a mild fever,β Song Ji-Hyun said. βHow long have you been sick?β
βAbout five days. Cough!β
The old man coughed at the end of his sentence.
βAnd you havenβt been to the hospital?β
βYes. I had a fever, but it came down. I am coughing a lot, and I have a lot of phlegm.β
βThen Iβll give you some regular cold medicine. Some expectorant and...β
βWait!β Young-Joon shouted instinctively. Song Ji-Hyun and the old man stared at him in surprise.
βUm...β
βHow do I explain this?β
Young-Joon couldnβt just say that he saw the Influenza A virus in the saliva the old man spat out as he sneezed.
βIf itβs been five days... Shouldnβt most cold symptoms... Go away?β Young-Joon stammered as he asked Song Ji-Hyun. βIf youβre still really sick, then... Um, the flu is going around now. Maybe you should go see a doctor...β
βSeeing a doctor would give you the most accurate results,β Song Ji-Hyun told the old man.
βBut if it has been five days, itβs too late to prescribe something like Tamiflu, even if it is the flu. You probably wonβt get an antiviral drug even if you go to the internal medicine department above us.β
βItβs too late to use Tamiflu?β Young-Joon said.
βYes.β
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 wasnβt 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-Joonβs major was in synthetic biology.
βTamiflu is only effective if it is given within forty-eight hours after infection. Itβs when the virus is actively replicating in the cell and causing high fevers,β Song Ji-Hyun replied. βIf 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.β
She gave the old man the regular cold medicine she was initially going to prescribe him.
βIβll prescribe you something that will help with the pain youβre experiencing from the immune response. Itβs an antihistamine and an expectorant. Take this three times a day, two after each meal. And this one...β
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.
βHave a great day.β
It was just Song Ji-Hyun and Young-Joon left in the pharmacy again.
βYou, a stem cell major, knew so much about probiotics, but you donβt know so much about new synthetic drugs like Tamiflu.β Song Ji-Hyun snickered.
βIβm no good at chemistry.β Young-Joon also chuckled.
βYou only do bio, then.β
βYes.β
βNew biological drugs. It has huge potential.β
βReally?β
βOf course. The bio-industry will turn the pharmaceutical market upside down.β
βHey. I've heard things like that ever since I was in high school, and itβs been four years since I got my doctorate.β
βThe future has just yet to come. Hm, I wonder why?β Song Ji-Hyun asked with her arm on the counter and her chin resting on her hand.
βOur principal scientist said that itβs because there hasnβt been a revolutionary genius in the biology field.β
βA revolutionary genius?β Young-Joon tilted his head in confusion.
βYes. 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,β Song Ji-Hyun replied. βWhatβs the point of us scientists at pharmaceutical companies making flu vaccines every year? The flu virus evolves every year, making the previous vaccines useless.β
βThatβs true.β Young-Joon agreed.
βDid you know? Theoretically, we could eradicate the flu with the current flu vaccine,β Song Ji-Hyun said.
Young-Joon nodded his head.
βIf we had enough vaccines and manpower,β Young-Joon replied.
If seven billion people, the entire worldβs 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 wouldnβt 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.
βWe need a solution that addresses the root of the problem,β Song Ji-Hyun said.
βMaybe an ingenious biologist will show up and revolutionize the concept of vaccines. Eradicate the flu just like that or something.β
Song Ji-Hyunβs eyes sparkled in excitement.
βEradication of the flu...β Young-Joon said.
βLike how humanity eradicated smallpox and anthrax a long time ago.β[1]
βShould I open something about the flu in Rosalineβs status window?β
βOh, right. What pharmaceutical company do you work for? Can I ask?β Song Ji-Hyun said to Young-Joon.
βWhat about you?β
βItβs a company called Celligener.β
βJust what I thought.β
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 Celligenerβs management do what he wanted and bought the drug.
βThe drug A-Gen took from you. Was it a new drug for liver cancer?β Young-Joon asked.
βOh? How do you know?β
Song Ji-Hyunβs eyes widened. She said, βWe worked really hard to develop that drug. But A-Gen took it and destroyed it.β
β...β
βAt 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-Genβs management, and money problems, too,β Song Ji-Hyun said. βWe were naive. A-Gen bought that drug to destroy it. If we knew that, we wouldβve done anything to stop our company from selling it.β
β...I see.β
Song Ji-Hyun thought for a moment with a reminiscing look on her face, then said, βPhew. I canβt believe Iβm talking about something like this with a stranger. Iβm sorry, it was stupid.β
She chuckled.
βNo, itβs alright,β Young-Joon replied.
βSo what about you? Where do you work?β
β...β
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 couldnβt 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.
βWhere is it? Hm?β
βUm... Actually...β
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.
βWow, the pharmacist here changed to a young lady.β
βWhatever happened to the one before?β
They all rushed over to the counter and pushed their prescriptions toward Song Ji-Hyun all at once.
βJust one moment. Iβll make each one in order.β
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 patientβs cold medicine.
* * *
Bzzz!
Young-Joonβs 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.
βWhat if I cure the flu?β
Young-Joon remembered how much money the inventor of Tamiflu made.
After returning home, Young-Joon turned on Rosalineβs status window straight away.
βI want to cure Flu A,β 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)
βWhat?β
Young-Joonβs eyes widened.
βEradication?β
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 didnβt have to use fitness on the first option because he could find that information by searching it on the internet.
βShould I go with the second option?β
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 didnβt 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 isnβt really eradicated in real life. ?