Chapter 85: The Diagnostic Kit (2)
“Hey, did you get the diagnostic kit?”
Ryu Ji-Won pricked up her ears when she heard the voices of the students on their way to school. All the students walking into the main entrance were talking about the same thing.
“I saw my mom use that yesterday at home, but it’s so freaking cool. My mom has diabetes and arthritis, and only those two came up when she plugged the kit into her phone and opened the app.”
“I went to the convenience store last night to get it, but it was all sold out. It’s trending like the kkul butter chips[1]. Apparently, people who work at convenience stores buy twenty of them when they come in and sell them for a higher price to people they know.”
“Insane...”
“The supply speed isn’t keeping up with the demand. And people who have the money already bought their supply for a few months. Apparently, they are going to diagnose themselves once every week.”
“Seriously, why are they like that? Why do they have to take all of it? It’s not like a disease that wasn’t there a week before will suddenly appear or something.’”
“I guess they’re older, so they’re anxious about it. But I think the supply and demand will settle down with time, right? It’s probably like this right now because it was just released.”
“I think the convenience store at school would have gotten some. Do you want to go?”
“They might be out already. The biotech kids are going crazy about it and going on the school convenience store raids every morning.”
This wasn’t an exaggeration. The biotechnology students were huge fans of Young-Joon. But it was natural as nowadays, Young-Joon made people’s chests puff up just by the commonality that they were both Korean. As such, the pride and respect that would come from Young-Joon being an alumnus of their department would be quite special. Plus, it wasn’t like he was an alumnus from twenty years ago; Young-Joon had only graduated from school a year ago. Some of the current undergraduate and graduate students had learned directly from him in the lab when Young-Joon was a graduate student.
“No, they are actually crazy. I get it because they are OG fans of Ryu Young-Joon, but...”
“Isn’t it more because this is the homeground? I heard that some people come into the school to see it. They even come to his advisor’s lab.”
Ryu Ji-Won gulped as she listened to them
‘The pressure is no joke...’
It was like this before, but it was getting worse.
There weren’t a lot of people at school who knew that she was Young-Joon’s younger sister. They didn’t even think of that because their age gap was pretty big, but a few of her colleagues and seniors knew that. It was something she revealed at the MT[2] at the beginning of the semester when she was explaining the system that discounted tuition if two or more people in the family were from or attending Jungyoon University.
‘I didn’t know he would become a huge star back then.’
If she knew that, she wouldn’t have told anyone. Already, Ryu Ji-Won was suffering quite a lot from it. There were some people who asked her if they could meet Young-Joon or wanted her to ask Young-Joon for advice on going to graduate school. One of the older girls in her school club who had a promiscuous past wanted her to set up a date. There was no telling what kind of troubles she would go through if more people knew she was Young-Joon’s younger sister.
‘I’m going to hide it as best as I can from now on.;
Ryu Ji-Won went to the convenience store that was in the basement of the Central Library. Of course, it wasn’t for the diagnostic kit but to get something to drink during class.
All the students who came to the convenience store asked the same thing at the counter.
“Do you have A-Checkup?”
A-Checkup was the product name of A-Bio’s diagnostic kit.
“No, we’re out.”
The part-time worker was also suffering as they were repeating the same thing they would have said since the morning dozens of times.
Ryu Ji-Won quietly paid for her drink and went to the lecture room.
Unfortunately, her class right now was her general biology course. The reason she enrolled in this course when she was a non-major student was to take advantage of her brother. All she would have to do was ask her brother since he was a doctor of biology, right? She wanted to get good grades easily, but she deeply regretted her decision now. The professor for this course was Professor Ban Du-Il. He was the professor who supervised Young-Joon from his undergraduate all the way to his doctorate; he was the “Ryu Young-Joon Maker”. And as he had known Young-Joon for a long time, he knew about Ryu Ji-Won as well.
“Oh, hello.” Ryu Ji-Won greeted Ban Du-Il when she saw him at the entrance.
“Hi.”
Ban Du-Il, who was sixty and close to retirement, was extremely delighted. He had been this way these days. It was natural as his student, whom he taught from his undergraduate to doctorate degree, was sweeping the scientific community.
“Ji-Won, your brother. Is he coming to school anytime soon?” asked Ban Du-Il, hinting at something. “The school is doing a World Scholars Seminar. It’s for all students down at the big hall, and our department is inviting a scholar this time. And I’m the one in charge. Your brother would be enough, right?”
“A World Scholars Seminar?”
“But you must fully control the dengue fever epidemic in Jeju Island this summer.”
“Of course. We will not let you down.”
There wasn’t a problem if they would have some leftover as they could just send it to developing countries to treat HIV. There was no way demand would go down as long as the HIV eradication project was going on.
* * *
After his meeting with the KCDC, Young-Joon took a little break as he got ready for his next meeting.
—If you want to stop the dengue virus from going around, there is a better way to do it.
Rosaline sent him a message.
“A vaccine? It’s a good idea, but it takes time to develop it. Even if you make it in one day, I have to do a clinical trial.”
—No. This method gets rid of the carrier. You don’t need a clinical trial.”
“Getting rid of the carrier? Mosquitoes?”
—Yes.
Young-Joon squinted.
“What do you mean?”
—Exactly what I said. Extinct the mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
“...”
A mosquito eradication project was one of the oldest leads in biology. In fact, there was actual research going on about this topic. With Google and the Gates Foundation leading the way, many multinational companies were investing a lot of money in this business. But no one had yet succeeded.
“But that business is still being criticized for destroying the ecosystem. And to be honest, I’m a little worried as well.”
It was divided between experts as well; people who said the ecosystem would be destroyed and those that say that we can stand against each other.
—It is because humans are stupid about the ecosystem.
“I think the scientists will be a little angry if they hear you.
—I am just saying it to deliver the truth, not to mock you. Humans do not have a lot of knowledge about the ecosystem.
“I think it’ll make people more mad that you weren’t mocking them or exaggerating... But okay.
—The only problem that occurs when mosquitoes go extinct is that the profit of mosquito spray companies goes down.
“And there aren’t any problems in the ecosystem?”
—Yes.
“Alright. I don’t think we will be able to do the mosquito extinction project in Jeju Island this summer, but let’s hear it. From the part where there’s no problem.”
—Of course there is no problem. Was there a problem in the ecosystem because smallpox or back rhinoceroses went extinct? The ecosystem is more flexible than you think, so you don’t have to worry.
“But insects are different from viruses or black rhinos. And insects like mosquitoes are food to many organisms.”
—There are three thousand five hundred forty-two types of mosquitoes on Earth.
“There are that many?”
Young-Joon felt goosebumps on his entire body.
—Yes. And there are only around ten species that sucks on human blood. There will not be a problem even if you make all of them go extinct. Of course, there will be a small structural change, but it will quickly be fixed because it is nothing fatal. It is because there are a lot of substitutes in nature for an insect like mosquitoes in the food chain.
Rosaline said.
1. Kkul means “honey” in Korean. ?
2. MT is short for “Membership Training”, and it is a Korean university culture where a department goes on a short trip together to get to know people. ?