Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 314 Who else would you rather me?
"Only 14.2?" Xu Yi's eyes widened in shock, his face filled with disbelief.

Zhou Jimin looked bitter and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, only 14.2."

Sunlight streamed through the porthole, illuminating the two men's profiles, one side bright and the other dark, mirroring their moods.

"How could this happen!" Xu Yi rubbed his temples hard, his thoughts indescribably complicated.

Zhou Jimin's condition was even more serious. He said in a hoarse voice, "This 14.2 is only a suppression, not a cure."

"What?" Xu Yi was even more distressed. "Not a single case has been cured?"

“No!” Zhou Jimin shook his head very firmly. “We have been observing for a period of time. The progression of the disease in these 14.2% of cases has indeed stopped, but they are still infected. We can still detect trace amounts of spores in their breath. There are no signs of recovery.”

Xu Yi suddenly asked, "What about the regular group? How's it going?"

Zhou Jimin's eye twitched: "The stem cell transplant has been completed, but the data from the infection group is too frightening. We have no idea whether it can provide immunity, and we dare not experiment casually."

Xu Yi nodded: "It's right to be cautious. At a time like this, we absolutely cannot act recklessly!"

After the transplantation is completed in the control group, the next step is to conduct infection experiments.

But 14.2% is far too low. If the chance of immunity is also 14.2%... no, even if it doubles to 30%, or even higher to 50%, half of the people will still get infected.

This is an outcome that no one can accept.

The key issue is that this technology not only has a low success rate, but also an outrageously high cost, requiring at least hundreds of thousands of dollars per person. While this might be acceptable for accumulating data for experiments, widespread adoption is a joke.

Even if the success rate is 100%, it's useless if the cost can't be reduced.

Just think about it, with 1.4 billion people, if each person spends an average of 200,000, that's 280 trillion, which wouldn't be enough to cover two years' worth of GDP.

This only covers the direct costs, as indirect losses such as time costs and work delays caused by the transplant have not yet been factored in.

"There's no need to continue the experiment." Despite his reluctance, Zhou Jimin had to come to this conclusion. "There have been some gains, but overall it's not a breakthrough, especially considering the huge amount of manpower and resources invested..."

All the words I wanted to say ultimately amounted to a sigh.

Xu Yi steadied his thoughts and advised, "Old Zhou, there's no need to be so discouraged. Victory and defeat are common occurrences in war. If it were that easy to find a cure for pneumoconiosis, how could the epidemic have developed to this point? Don't be discouraged, don't lose heart, just keep trying in the future, right?"

“I’m not that fragile, it’s just that I’m under a lot of pressure.” Zhou Jimin shook his head. “These past two days, I’ve been thinking about this and summarizing some lessons learned.”

Xu Yi immediately pulled out his notebook: "Go on!"

Zhou Jimin organized his thoughts: "First of all, my previous idea was a bit naive. The purpose of using Ouyang as a model was to find a cure. But it turns out that our current method is wrong. My idea is to adjust the research direction as soon as possible, to study the commonalities of ordinary immune people in depth, and to uncover the secrets of immunity as soon as possible."

Xu Yi's pen flew across the paper, writing a string of incomprehensible scribbles that no one but himself could understand: "Shift the focus from treatment to immunity, right?"

“Yes!” Zhou Jimin nodded emphatically. “If we can’t find a cure, but we can ensure the safety of those who haven’t been infected, that’s a great deed.”

"What about the stem cell experiments? Are they still going to be done?" Xu Yi asked, pausing his pen.

“I think it’s necessary to continue!” Zhou Jimin said. “I’ve always felt that stem cell transplantation is a very important direction. We can scale it down, but we can’t abandon it completely…”

At this point, he shook his head, his meaning quite clear.

Xu Yi nodded: "Okay, I will truthfully reflect your opinion to the higher-ups, but the final result is not something I can control."

"I understand," Zhou Jimin said. "If there's nothing else, I'll head back now."

"Old Zhou," Xu Yi said earnestly, "I'm an amateur when it comes to research. But like I said, I'll definitely take care of the logistics for you. Feel free to come up with any ideas you have!"

“Okay!” Zhou Jimin nodded, got up and left.

Xu Yi watched his departing figure, his brows furrowing slowly. After a moment's thought, he called Lu Wei over: "Go and make arrangements, and keep an eye on Lao Zhou's mood."

Lu Wei was somewhat surprised: "Captain, you mean..."

"Why are you asking so many questions!" Xu Yi interrupted immediately. "Just do whatever I say!"

"Yes!" Lu Wei agreed and immediately went to make the arrangements.

After Zhou Jimin left, he immediately returned to the research area, but he did nothing. He sat there in a daze for a while, then suddenly looked at Jiang Yuwei: "Little Jiang!"

"Yes!" Jiang Yuwei quickly replied, "Teacher Zhou, were you calling me?"

“Yes, could you please call Ou Yang over? I need to talk to him about something,” Zhou Jimin said.

Jiang Yuwei found it a little strange, but didn't think much of it. She agreed and left in a hurry, bringing Ou Yang in a short while later.

Ou Yang had been on board the ship for quite some time, but he hadn't been to the research area many times. He looked around curiously, but quickly straightened up and asked, "Professor Zhou, did you look for me?"

Zhou Jimin forced a smile, pointed to the chair opposite him, and said, "Come, come, sit down and let's talk."

Ouyang was not pretentious at all and sat down without any hesitation.

Zhou Jimin said, "Ouyang, I've asked you to come here today because I want to get some information from you."

“Please speak!” Ouyang immediately straightened his attitude.

Zhou Jimin said, "That's right. I saw in the documents that you had a high fever once when you were at Brown Bear Airport, and it was quite serious, is that right?"

Yes, that's true.

"What medicine did you take, or what methods did you use to reduce the fever? Do you remember?"

Ou Yang was immediately embarrassed: "Hey, I was so feverish at the time that I was unconscious. Even now, I don't know what happened... Oh, right, Zhu Yiming was with me the whole time I had a fever, so he should know."

Zhou Jimin turned his gaze to Jiang Yuwei again: "Little Jiang, I have to trouble you one more time."

Jiang Yuwei was a little annoyed, but she had no choice but to obediently call the person over.

When faced with Zhou Jimin's question, Zhu Yiming was equally at a loss for words: "I did take a few pills, all given to me by the US military, but I don't know what they are."

Undeterred, Zhou Jimin pressed on, "Is there anything else special about it? The more details the better!"

Zhu Yiming stared into his memory and shook his head: "It's been too long, I really can't remember."

"I see!" Zhou Jimin was disappointed, but he didn't say anything more. "Go back and think about it carefully. If you remember anything, let me know as soon as possible."

“Okay!” Ou Yang and Zhu Yiming replied in unison, then took their leave.

As soon as they stepped outside, Zhu Yiming whispered, "Ouyang, what's going on? Why are you asking about the airport?"

"I don't know!" Ou Yang shook his head. "Maybe the experiment didn't go well, and he wants to find out why."

Zhu Yiming looked astonished: "What can you possibly find out from this?"

In his eyes, these so-called details were not worth asking at all. It couldn't possibly be that the angle at which Ouyang lay down or his sleeping posture could affect whether he ultimately became immune or infected, could it? That's ridiculous.
Zhu Yiming suddenly lowered his voice: "Why do I feel like this is a bit like grasping at straws in desperation?"

"The experiment didn't go well, you must be anxious." Ou Yang shook his head slightly. "Don't talk so much, you'll only cause trouble by making wild guesses and talking nonsense."

Zhu Yiming was indignant: "I'm just telling you, how can I gossip to unrelated outsiders?"

The two didn't take it to heart and quickly went about their own business.

Zhou Jimin, however, was preoccupied with his own thoughts. He sat in the research area for half a day until dinner time, when he finally composed himself, ate slowly as usual, took a walk, and returned to his cabin to rest.

As the head of the research department, Zhou Jimin, like Xu Yi, lived in a single room, which was not large but had all the necessary amenities.

But even though he was lying in bed, he tossed and turned like a pancake, unable to fall asleep.

Zhou Jimin knew that this was caused by excessive pressure, but he had no way to solve it.

Or rather, there was never any intention to solve it from the beginning.

He lay in bed until midnight before quietly getting up and going to the research area alone.

The nights in the research area are not peaceful; even at midnight, researchers are still working day and night.

No one found it strange that Zhou Jimin appeared at this time, because staying up late is the norm for researchers.

Zhou Jimin calmly walked to a corner of the research area and slowly put on his protective suit.

There are several negative pressure chambers there specifically for studying spores, and anyone entering or leaving must wear a full set of positive pressure protective gear.

This thing is a bit like the inflatable dolls that merchants use for promotion. The inside of the protective suit is pressurized, with the pressure slightly greater than the outside air pressure. Once the protective suit is damaged, the airflow will be blown out of the protective suit under the pressure, thus preventing spores or other pathogens from entering the protective suit.

Negative pressure chambers operate on the same principle.

After putting on his protective suit, Zhou Jimin entered the negative pressure chamber, took a jar of spores and placed it in front of him. He neither conducted experiments nor did he analyze them; he just stared at the jar blankly, lost in thought.

Several researchers found it strange and went up to ask him about it with concern, but Zhou Jimin only said that he was fine and waved them to go back to their work.

Zhou Jimin was not as calm as he appeared. His heart was in turmoil, with two completely different voices arguing back and forth, but they could not reach a conclusion.

About twenty minutes later, Zhou Jimin suddenly opened the canister, and the green light on the isolation door leading to the negative pressure area instantly turned red.

That's a sign that spores have been detected.

But nobody thought it was wrong.

How can you conduct research if you don't open it up?

However, the next second, Zhou Jimin ripped off his helmet, picked up the spore jar, and took a deep breath.

The researchers nearby were all stunned by the scene. One of them instinctively slammed his hand on the alarm on the wall, and the piercing alarm instantly echoed throughout the research area.

They wanted to rush over to check on them, but Zhou Jimin waved them off, saying, "Don't come any closer, I'm fine!"

Those researchers' legs were numb, and you were directly smelling the spores and you're still fine?
Zhou Jimin took another drag as if no one else was around, carefully savored it, but felt nothing unusual, and disappointedly closed the spore jar.

The filtration system is constantly working, filtering the air in the negative pressure zone and gradually removing all the spores from the air.

Before the spores are completely eliminated, all doors and windows in the negative pressure zone are locked, and no one is allowed to enter or leave.

Upon hearing the news, Xu Yi arrived outside the negative pressure zone. Looking at Zhou Jimin, who was extremely calm, through the glass, he was filled with complaints but couldn't utter a single word.

He picked up the communication device and said helplessly, "Old Zhou, why are you doing this to yourself?"

"It's nothing, I'm just not willing to accept it," Zhou Jimin smiled slightly. "I don't have the nerve to let others suck my spores, so I have to do it myself."

Xu Yi sighed heavily: "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"It's okay, I think it's fine."

"What good do you think this will do?" Xu Yi was so angry his teeth itched. "How am I supposed to explain this to my superiors?"

"I'll confess myself." Zhou Jimin was stubborn and wouldn't listen to any advice.

The spores in the negative pressure zone were finally filtered out, and the indicator light on the isolation door turned from red to green. Xu Yi immediately shouted, "Quickly, quickly, bring the person out and use the blocking agent immediately!"

Human research on Pneumocystis jirovecii has not been without success; the blocking agent is a very useful invention.

This is an aerosol that, when inhaled, forms a protective layer in the lungs, preventing spores from taking root and growing there, thus blocking infection.

At first glance, this thing, although not a vaccine, can block the spread of infection and is not far from being a vaccine.

But that's not actually the case. The blocker must be stored at a constant temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. Once it is removed from the storage temperature, it will quickly become ineffective.

Secondly, this thing is extremely expensive; ordinary people simply can't afford it.

Finally, the blocking agent only lasts for about half an hour after inhalation, and must be inhaled promptly to continue its effect.

However, Zhou Jimin locked the hatch directly, not allowing anyone to enter the negative pressure area: "Old Xu, I appreciate your kindness, but forget about the blocking agent."

Xu Yi was furious: "You surnamed Zhou, what exactly do you want?"

"It's nothing," Zhou Jimin said calmly. "I'm just doing what I have to do. The experiment must produce results."

"There's no need to inhale the spores. Open the door quickly, there's still time!"

Zhou Jimin laughed: "If I open the door now, not only will all my previous efforts be wasted, but people will also think that I'm just putting on a show... Lao Xu, let me be willful this once. No matter what the final result is, I can give myself an explanation."

"Zhou Jimin!" Xu Yi was truly anxious. "You've given yourself an explanation, but who's going to give me one? Who's going to give an explanation to the higher-ups? Are you trying to ruin me?"

"I'm sorry!" Zhou Jimin sincerely apologized.

Xu Yi's throat was dry and his voice was hoarse from talking, but Zhou Jimin remained unmoved and refused to open the door.

Xu Yi knew he couldn't persuade Zhou Jimin. As time ticked by, he knew he couldn't wait any longer. "Open the door, time's up."

Zhou Jimin glanced at the time and shook his head: "It's still early, let's wait a little longer!"

Xu Yi nearly spat out a mouthful of blood, thinking to himself, "Why are you being so serious at a time like this?"
Xu Yi wanted to break down the door, but Zhou Jimin would reopen the spore jar every now and then, giving Xu Yi no chance at all.

After a stalemate lasting more than an hour, Xu Yi finally gave up.

After leaving the negative pressure chamber, Zhou Jimin immediately transferred himself to an isolation ward.

(End of this chapter)