Chapter 209: Clinical Trials
Chapter 209: Clinical Trials
Every country, even the World Health Organization, would have an emergency plan for epidemics.
For example, in the current emergency, conventional vaccine clinical trials simply would not be quick enough to counter the spread of the virus, so emergency clinical trials were very important now.
If Chen Chen only wanted to save himself, he could just directly notify the Namibian Ministry of Health and they would 100% agree to this emergency clinical trial.
However, Chen Chen still wished to expand his influence and the company’s international reputation, and even cultivate their image as a savior, through this matter. As a result, it was very important that he reached out to the World Health Organization.
Nonetheless, whether the World Health Organization agreed to this emergency clinical trial, Chen Chen would proceed with it.
The application for an emergency clinical trial had just been submitted and without waiting for the other party’s approval, the Eco Science City was quickly put into operation.
At this moment, the sky was blanketed with dark clouds. Chen Chen was leading a team of Black Knights up the city’s steel watchtower. They gazed into the distance.
Under the dim sky, rows of temporary relief tents on both sides of the road spread from the city all the way to the horizon. Tens of thousands of victims had gathered below the city, forming a unique refugee camp.
These people were dressed in rags. They were also skinny and covered in blood. They converged under the city gate, looking up at the tower numbly, waiting for the next distribution of food and medicine.
As time passed, more and more refugees gathered here because the time for the daily distribution of supplies was approaching.
Chen Chen shook his head as he observed these refugees who looked like a tide of corpses.
If Namibia had been a little richer, its social system would not have fallen like a house of cards after being plagued by this virus.
The medical and health environment in Namibia itself was extremely poor. There were probably only one or two hospitals in each city. Some villagers would have to walk dozens of kilometers to get there if they wanted to treat their illness.
Moreover, the income per capita was too low, so most people were unable to afford the high medical expenses. This further exacerbated the flaws in the system.
This was one of the reasons the virus had wreaked havoc in Namibia.
It was not just Namibia. Many countries that were even poorer than Namibia had fallen in this battle.
Moreover, the cultural environment in Africa was another cause of the virus’s devastation.
Most African residents practiced the custom of hunting wild animals such as chimpanzees, monkeys, and bats for food. Some pathogens that threatened humans such as AIDS, were transmitted from wild animals to humans through this channel.
The local funeral customs in Africa were also a culprit in the spread of BE-006 — in some villages, after the death of a villager, the body must be handled by the relatives before burial. For instance, for a dead villager, the relatives of the deceased would put his body in his home. Then, his wife, his mother, and some female relatives would clean him and cut him apart to remove the food and feces that remained in the digestive tract. He must be cleaned before he could be buried.
During this entire process, those involved would not wear any protective gear, not even gloves.
Moreover, after the outbreak, the refugees chose to flee the village immediately. Even so, they did not understand that, by fleeing the village, they had also carried this deadly virus to further places...
Thus the virus could spread so easily.
The undeveloped medical facilities, the lack of health education, and the local cultural customs had turned Africa into a petri dish for the virus.
Now, Chen Chen had sealed off the Eco Science City. To prevent international outcry, he had also set up rescue points outside the city, which had intensified the spread of this virus.
Due to these rescue points, hundreds of thousands of refugees could only come here to survive. Medical supplies could not keep up, so they were forced to rely on disaster relief tents to house these people.
However, if Chen Chen wanted to control the epidemic, the first thing he had to do was to prepare an isolation room for everyone, while providing each patient with a fully equipped intensive care ward. With careful symptomatic treatment, perhaps the fatality rate of Ebola could be reduced by more than one-third.
Still, if he were to do that — forget about billions, not even tens of billions of USD would fill this bottomless pit. Furthermore, international aid supplies were not meant for Chen Chen but were divided between all African countries. By the time it reached the hands of the Namibian government, only millions of USD were left, which was only a drop in the bucket.
Without isolation rooms, disinfection facilities, and intensive care units, the rescue points outside the Eco Science City had become not a refuge for the refugees, but a hunting ground for the virus to kill.
In the beginning, the Eco Science City still had the ability to clean up the dead bodies but as the refugees became increasingly agitated, Chen Chen had issued an order not to leave the city.
Among the help provided to Chen Chen by the Namibian government, apart from this 5,000-strong army, the remaining officials had gone abroad. Those who were unable to go abroad also placed their whole family in the Eco Science City.
The entire country had descended into anarchy.
To prevent being ensnared by media accusations that he was not taking any action, Chen Chen simply asked the Eco Science City to lower some disinfectants and compressed food from the tower every day so that these people could just about survive.
An air of despair enveloped the refugee camp outside the city. Due to the lack of order, this place had completely turned into a paradise for viruses and crime.
As Chen Chen watched the hellish scenes below the city, his face was blank. He stretched out one hand and beckoned, and an interpreter walked over in a groveling manner.
The interpreter was a middle-aged black man. He was holding a stack of speeches. At this point, he nodded and bowed to Chen Chen. “Mr. Chen, do you want to start now?”
“Let’s begin,” Chen Chen replied.
“Okay!”
The middle-aged man walked into a sealed-off booth, then took off the helmet of the protective suit and turned on the broadcast. He said into the microphone in front of him: “Ahem, brothers and sisters of the Ovambo tribe, the Bantu tribe, the Simba tribe, and other fellow citizens of Namibia, this is the Eco Science City of the Blacklight Biotechnology Company.”
As the black man spoke, the loud broadcast boomed through the entire refugee camp. Countless refugees turned their heads numbly, then stood up one after another. Their survival instincts led them to congregate beneath the Eco Science City.
“My fellow citizens, the epidemic has ravaged our homeland and we’ve left our homes to seek help. Fortunately, the Blacklight Biotechnology Company is willing to extend a helping hand to save us...”
The black man said with great emotion, “They are like the light of redemption, illuminating our broken bodies and sinful souls. And now, they’ve developed a vaccine that can save us! As long as the vaccine is tested successfully, we’ll break free of the clutches of Death himself and return to our homeland!”
As Chen Chen listened to the black man in the radio room, who was announcing the news in English first, his mouth twitched a little. He wanted to know who wrote this draft.
The voice of the black man went on. “Today, Eco Science City will start the BE-006 vaccine clinical trial. It’s now recruiting five thousand healthy citizens. Anyone whose body shows no symptoms can participate in the registration!”