Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 315 23%
It was late at night, but Xu Yi dared not delay for a moment. After arranging the follow-up matters, he immediately contacted the Dongzhou ship to report Zhou Jimin's situation in detail.

The Dongzhou was the flagship of the US fleet, and the embassy only borrowed some of the ship's cabins.

Aircraft carriers are better suited to be flagships, but this is the Americas. Due to various constraints, the aircraft carriers from the East China Sea were left on the secondary transport line to command the fleet to blockade the Americas.

The report was only halfway through when there was a knock on the hatch, forcing it to be stopped.

Xu Yi had a bad feeling and immediately opened the hatch: "What happened?"

Not just anyone can come to the communications cabin. Unless there are special circumstances, who would come to interrupt the report at this time?
Lu Wei, standing outside the door, looked grave: "Captain, several more people have inhaled spores."

"What?" Xu Yi's vision went black; he felt like the sky had collapsed. "How many people were there?"

"All five are ordinary people who have undergone transplants!"

Xu Yi nearly ground his teeth to powder: "Where did they get the spores?"

"One of the researchers, Professor Zhou, slipped into the negative pressure chamber during the chaos when he exited the cabin."

Xu Yi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, but his face was already as black as the bottom of a pot: "Where is he?"

"They're all in quarantine."

Xu Yi forced out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Immediately gather all the personnel involved in the experiment under close surveillance. Remember, not a single one can be missing!"

"Yes!" Lu Wei immediately agreed, but in reality, he had already made arrangements in advance.

"Also, the negative pressure zone is sealed off, and no one is allowed to enter or leave."

"Yes!"

"Go ahead, wait for my message!" Xu Yi retreated into the communications pod, rubbing his brow, which was now contorted with brow pain, before returning to the camera. "Several more people have just inhaled the spores intentionally. I personally believe this issue must be resolved properly as soon as possible..."

Just minutes later, Xu Yi, who had stopped reporting, left the communications cabin.

At this moment, Ouyang was still unaware of what had happened and was fast asleep in bed.

But he was suddenly awakened by the sound of the broadcast and sat up abruptly.

A broadcast in the middle of the night, something must have happened!

Then look at Zhu Yiming, he's sleeping like a log, completely undisturbed by the broadcast.

"Attention everyone, this is Xu Yi. Tonight, something extremely bad happened. Comrade Zhou Jimin, without permission, inhaled spores and continued an experiment that had already been suspended... From a personal perspective, I greatly admire Professor Zhou's determination to do his research at any cost, but from a broader perspective, Comrade Zhou Jimin's actions are neither advisable nor recommended, and certainly not worthy of being publicized or learned from!"

At this point, Xu Yi paused for a moment: "Just now, several more people inhaled the spores without authorization. I want to ask these people, do you think that doing so is heroic, magnanimous, or selfless? No, without any experimental data to support it, you have set a very bad precedent!"

Xu Yi grew increasingly agitated and had to pause to calm himself: "Personally, I believe that those involved must be severely punished to deter future incidents and prevent similar occurrences. Furthermore, those in the general group who have already undergone transplantation are immediately prohibited from contact with spores or infected individuals, and researchers involved in the experiment are forbidden from entering the research area..."

Before Xu Yi could finish speaking, the ship erupted in an uproar.

It was both for the self-sacrifice of Zhou Jimin and others that we felt this was righteous, and for the irrationality of the order.

Zhu Yiming, who had woken up at some point, looked indignant and grief-stricken: "This is so unreasonable! Isn't this making people bleed and cry at the same time?"

Ouyang also felt uncomfortable, but still analyzed rationally: "From an experimental point of view, only by inhaling spores can the experiment continue and avoid the initial investment going to waste. However, from a moral or humane point of view, this experiment should not continue. The ban is also for everyone's sake."

Zhu Yiming sighed, "I know you're right, but I just feel so choked up."

“Me too.” Ouyang sat up, wanting to go up to the deck for some fresh air, but leaving the cabin without permission at night was forbidden, so he could only think about it.

It wasn't just Ou Yang and Zhu Yiming who felt aggrieved; many others did too.

As everyone knows, the ban is essentially to protect other participants in the experiment, to prevent others from being forced to inhale spores due to public criticism and strange looks after Zhou Jimin and others inhaled them.

The reason is understandable, but that does not mean that we can accept the punishment imposed on Zhou Jimin and others by the authorities.

After all, the six people's starting point was not wrong, and a gentleman judges by actions, not intentions. Even if some individuals had impure motives, they still risked their own physical and mental health to allow the experiment to continue.

Just as Ou Yang and Zhu Yiming were sighing and lamenting, the people involved in the experiment wrote letters of request to volunteer to inhale the spores.

There are countless examples of people biting their fingers to write blood oaths.

Upon receiving the letter of request to join the fight, Xu Yi nearly went crazy, slamming his fist on the table with a loud bang: "Wasn't I clear enough? Wasn't it obvious enough?"

"What are you trying to do? What are you trying to do?" He grabbed the letter of request to join the fight, clenched it in his hand and shook it again and again. "Let me emphasize again, without my permission, no one is allowed to enter the negative pressure chamber, to come into contact with the spores, or to come into contact with infected personnel!"

"Note that this applies to anyone!" Xu Yi emphasized, slamming his hand on the table.

"Yes!" Lu Wei immediately relayed the order and strictly commanded everyone to return to their respective cabins to rest.

With such a big incident, how could anyone sleep?

Everyone knows that although everyone is trying their best to volunteer, only a portion, or even just a small portion, of those who genuinely want to inhale the spores. The rest are coerced by others and forced to join against their will.

No matter how loudly they shout, it doesn't change the fact that they are hypocritical.

However, Xu Yi didn't think there was anything wrong with it. As the saying goes, judge by actions, not intentions, because no one is perfect.

It's best not to test people's hearts, no matter what time it is.

Ouyang didn't hear about it until the next morning.

He remained silent for a long time, his heart filled with countless emotions, yet he didn't know how to express them.

People often say that those born in the 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s are a lost generation.

In their mouths, every generation born at any time is a lost generation, but the truth is that no generation has ever truly lost. However, every time a crisis comes, there is always a group of people who stand up to turn the tide.

There are no heroes who fall from the sky, only ordinary people who step forward.

Ou Yang suddenly had a completely new understanding of this sentence, as if he had been baptized by something.

In the days that followed, the aftermath of the incident continued.

More and more letters of request to join the fight are being submitted, but the authorities refuse to compromise in the slightest.

Many people believe that it is just opening a small gap for those who voluntarily continue the experiment, and it will not have any impact.

However, while opening a breach is easy, closing it is extremely difficult. Moreover, this small breach could be exploited by malicious individuals to create situations involving forced consent or other similar incidents. At that point, it would no longer be as simple as being passive.

Ordinary people tend to think about problems in a simple and direct way, but those in power must comprehensively consider the impact of various factors. Every small action must be carefully considered and deliberated before a decision is made, rather than being made on a whim. Reassuringly, the punishment of Zhou Jimin and others remained merely verbal; instead, they were subjected to continuous 20-hour observation and endless inspections every day.

Five days later, Zhou Jimin developed a low-grade fever, which turned into a high fever the next day. The staff responsible for taking care of him immediately brought him antipyretics.

He helped Zhou Jimin up and whispered, "Professor, have some water, the fever reducer is here!"

Zhou Jimin's head was spinning from the fever. In his half-awake state, he heard the words "fever reducer" and his muddled mind suddenly remembered Zhu Yiming's words: "You did take a few pills!"
He had a high fever for several days, but only took a few pills?
A thought flashed through Zhou Jimin's mind: Is there some kind of connection between high fever and immunity?
He was also a man of great willpower; he gritted his teeth and refused to open his mouth, even though he was not fully conscious, he still refused to take the medicine.

The staff were unaware of what had happened and were sweating profusely with anxiety. In the end, they had no choice but to change the oral medication to an intramuscular injection.

As his temperature dropped, Zhou Jimin became much more alert and immediately instructed his staff not to administer any more antipyretics, no matter how high the fever rose.

The staff were almost in tears; was this something he could decide?
The situation was reported to Xu Yi immediately. Xu Yi had been tormented by the inhalation incident for some time, and he refused to cooperate without hesitation after receiving the report.

Are you kidding me? Who doesn't take medicine when they have a fever?

To this end, he even took time to go to the isolation ward specifically to personally persuade Zhou Jimin.

If Zhou Jimin hadn't been infected by the spores, but had suffered brain damage due to the failure to reduce his fever in time, the consequences could have been severe.

Even if Zhou Jimin wanted to refuse, it wouldn't work; public opinion would crush everyone, leaving them with no chance to recover.

However, Zhou Jimin was unusually stubborn, insisting that the high fever was likely related to his immune system. He refused to take any medication and asked the research team to closely monitor his condition.

Xu Yi's only comment on this was that Zhou Jimin was too obsessed and had gone astray.

He naturally wouldn't agree to such an unreasonable request that could have serious consequences. As a result, every time Zhou Jimin regained consciousness after his fever subsided, he would fly into a rage at Xu Yi, eventually threatening suicide, which forced Xu Yi to agree.

However, he only verbally agreed, but privately instructed the staff to use antipyretics when necessary, at most reducing the dosage to keep the body temperature below the safe line.

In addition, physical cooling methods must be implemented.

Four days later, Zhou Jimin's fever finally subsided.

Xu Yi immediately arranged a comprehensive physical examination for him, and the results showed that everything was normal and Zhou Jimin was not infected with phantom lung bacteria.

"Success!" Zhou Jimin gave a weak smile, feeling extremely satisfied.

However, bad news followed one after another. Five other researchers who inhaled the spores developed high fevers. Given Zhou Jimin's precedent, the research team implemented limited temperature control on them.

Only one person was immune, while the other four were subsequently confirmed to be infected, resulting in an immunity rate of only 33%.

It's more than twice as high as the inhibition rate, but it's still too low.

What's even more frustrating is that no one knows whether the transplant was the cause or whether the two people were immune to the virus themselves.

If we remove the 10% immunization rate, the final result is only 23%, which is only about 10% higher than the inhibition rate.

Upon learning the result, Zhou Jimin remained silent for a long time, his emotions extremely depressed: "It was my fault that they were ruined."

Xu Yi remained silent for a while before saying, "Everyone did it voluntarily."

Zhou Jimin asked in a low voice, "What are the higher-ups planning to do with them?"

"What else can we do?" Xu Yi sighed. "They got infected for the experiment, after all. We don't dare to think about curing them. Let's arrange another round of transplants for them and see if we can suppress the infection."

Zhou Jimin nodded: "That's the only way."

"Don't worry, I will apply to the higher-ups for the appropriate benefits. I won't let anyone down," Xu Yi said.

Zhou Jimin nodded: "Thank you."

He cannot leave the isolation ward for the time being, and can only hand over the follow-up work to Xu Yi.

Xu Yi did not deliberately hide the news. The news that the immunity rate was only 23% spread quickly, and the experimental staff who had been volunteering to participate fell silent.

Then, one of them started, others followed suit, and everyone continued to volunteer.

As a result, they were severely scolded by Xu Yi, and only then did they quiet down.

Ouyang felt that it was less of a lesson and more of a way to save face.

Two weeks later, Zhou Jimin was allowed to leave the isolation ward.

With this, the spore inhalation incident came to an end.

However, the research did not stop; in fact, they actively collaborated with research institutions in the United States, exchanging research data in an effort to achieve a breakthrough as soon as possible.

The pandemic is a common enemy of all mankind, and no one can refuse cooperation in research.

Another impact of the spore inhalation incident is that the importance of Ouyang has been greatly reduced.

Zhou Jimin believes that although the stem cell transplant failed, there are still aspects of Ou Yang's body that can be studied in depth. Once the key is revealed, a decisive breakthrough may be achieved.

However, not many people agree with this view, and the research team has already obtained enough samples from Ouyang to continue the research.

Time on the ship gradually returned to calm. Everyone, including Ouyang, went out early and returned late, working hard to complete their own tasks. The chaos outside seemed to be in another world, completely irrelevant to them.

Several days later, a fierce wind howled on the sea, and the once calm waters began to churn, causing the Hua Tuo ship to sway noticeably.

According to the latest weather forecast, the weather near Xiushidun is about to deteriorate, and Dongzhou has ordered Huatuo to immediately move south to avoid the wind.

Upon receiving the order, the researchers immediately secured all experimental equipment, sealed off all experiments that could be stopped, and assigned dedicated personnel to monitor those that could not be stopped.

As the wind and waves intensified, the boat rocked more and more violently, and Zhu Yiming, who thought he had already adapted to life on the boat, was seasick and felt dizzy.

He was about to vomit bile, but he still tried to comfort himself: "It's okay, just keep vomiting, and you'll get used to it!"

Even sailors and researchers who don't usually get seasick are not immune to it; many of them are vomiting profusely while holding vomit bags and sticking to their posts.

However, even after vomiting, you still have to keep eating, no matter how much you have no appetite.

This isn't a question of whether I want to eat or whether I can eat it; it's about needing to replenish my energy no matter how much I resist.

Ouyang, however, was also tormented by the repeated shaking, causing his stomach acid to churn and leaving him listless and unable to muster any energy.

He couldn't help but complain: When will this swaying ever end?

(End of this chapter)