Chapter 301 The Virus That Plays Dead

The group returned to the hall and stood in front of two yellow doors. Dr. Clinton said to Theresa, "Harry is waiting for you in the locker room." She will teach you how to do it and we will be waiting for you at the back door of the women's locker room. ”; Theresa nodded, and walked through the yellow door, and Clinton immediately said, "Gentlemen, please follow me." ”; The crowd followed Clinton into the men's locker room. The dressing room was painted a strange orange color, otherwise it would be no different from any other dressing room. The waiter handed Sean and the others an open, keyless lock, and a freshly washed pride gown. Paper underwear, socks and cotton slippers are all placed in a plastic bag.

Clinton then led the crowd to a row of empty lockers and said, "Please take off all your clothes, including underwear and jewelry." ”;

Sean's three gentlemen were all stripped naked in an instant, and Sean found that the tall policeman was carrying a miniature pistol with a barrel of more than two inches, and he leaked the length of the gun. Sean chuckled to himself, almost eager to tell Trissa about his discovery.

As soon as the tall policeman turned around, he saw the gunshot wound in Sean's chest and said, "It's very close to the heart." ”。

"Luckily I don't have the heart. Sean said. It was caused when he shot at Watt, the leader of the radicals, through the roof of the car.

Clinton put on an overly loose white coat and now looks like a penguin.

Sean put the padlock on the latch and straightened the paper underwear on his body.

Dr. Clinton looked at the crowd for a moment, and then said, "All set?" Please follow me. ”

"Wait a minute"; The short policeman said, "Are we still going to wear face masks, respirators, or anything like that?";

"Not in District 2, officer. Maybe it's useful in Zone 4, if you're interested in going deeper. Come on, follow me. ”; Clinton Road.

At the back of the locker room, Clinton opened a red door marked with the words "Zone II" written underneath the odd biohazard mark. Sean heard the sound of the air moving. Dr. Clinton explained, "It's caused by the negative pressure in the air. The air pressure is one pound less per cubic inch than the outside, so no pathogenic bacteria can escape accidentally. ”;

"It would be terrible if it escaped. The tall policeman said casually.

In addition, a particulate air filter on the roof cleans all the exhaust gases that come out of it. ”; Clinton ignored him. Go on.

The tall policeman remained fiercely skeptical, as if unwilling to accept any law in favor of Sunshine Isles, undermining his long-established beliefs. That is, the biological hazards of Sunny Island are as harmful as the danger caused by Three Mile Island and Chernobyl combined. (The world-famous nuclear radiation zone.) :)

As they walked into the prefabricated cement hallway, Clinton looked around and asked, "What about Ms. Theresa?"

"Doctor, are you married?"; Sean answered with a question.

"It's over. Oh...... Of course, she may have to take a while to change her clothes, woman. ”; Clinton finally understood Sean's way of replying with a big detour.

"It's not possible, it's certain. Sean said with a smile.

Finally, Theresa came out of the door with "Madam" written on it. She wore a loose white lab coat and cotton slippers, and her legs looked even longer.

Theresa also heard the sound of the air moving. Clinton explained again about the negative pressure in the air. And be careful not to bump into bottle racks or carts that hold pill bottles or stuff like harmful insects and chemicals.

Clinton looked at the crowd and said, "Okay, please come with me, I'll show you what you're doing here, and tell your friends and colleagues that we're not building bacteriological weapons." ”; He laughed, and then said in a stern tone, "The fifth district is forbidden to enter. You will need to be vaccinated and trained to wear biohazard suits and respirators. In addition, the basement is also off-limits. ”;

"Why is the basement off-limits?" Sean asked.

"Because we hid alien corpses and Nazi scientists there. Clinton laughed again.

Sean grinned as well, though he was happy to joke with the fat doctor with the accent of a nuclear war maniac from the movie. Because if they are combined, it will be a bit of cross talk. One tall and one short

The tall officer also wanted to have some humor, and said, "I thought the aliens and the Nazis were in the bunker." ”;

"It's not. The alien corpse is hidden in the lighthouse. Clinton said, "The Nazis complained that there were vampires in the bunker, and we moved them out of the bunker." ”;

As the crowd continued to walk, Clinton continued: "This area is very safe, mainly in the genetic engineering studios, offices, and electron microscopes, and the work here is low-risk and low-infectious. ”;

As they walked through the concrete corridor, Dr. Clinton occasionally pushed open a yellow iron door to greet the staff in this office or room and ask about their work.

It's full of all sorts of weird windowless rooms, one of which looks like a wine cellar, except that, according to Clinton, the bottles on the shelves are filled with live cell cultures.

Then, as Sean and the others walked through the dark gray corridors, Clinton explained: "Now there are new viruses that infect animals, humans, or both. We humans and higher animals do not have an immune response to many of these deadly diseases. Existing antiviral drugs are not very effective, so the key to avoiding a possible future global catastrophe is to rely on antiviral vaccines, and genetic engineering is the key to developing new vaccines. ”;

Theresa asked, "What disaster?"

Dr. Clinton continued to walk forward, speaking lightly, "In terms of animal diseases, for example, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease can kill a large number of livestock across the country and destroy the livelihoods of millions of people. The price of other food products may quadruple. The foot-and-mouth disease virus is perhaps the most contagious and deadly virus, which is why people working on biological weapons have always been interested in it. They dream that one day their scientists will be able to genetically synthesize the foot-and-mouth disease virus that infects humans. However, I think the worse scenario is that such viruses mutate themselves and endanger humans. ”;

No one commented on this, and no one asked questions. Since none of them were experts, they continued to tour more of the studios, and Clinton always had a few words of encouragement to the pale, white-coated researchers, encouraging the working conditions of the pedants. Let everyone look at it like this, and their hearts will be hairy. Clinton's words were nothing more than "What did we discover today?" Did you make any new discoveries?" Something like that. It seems that this person likes him, at least not hate.

Not for a while. The crowd turned into another corridor that seemed to have no end, and Clinton continued his speech: "For example, in 1983. There was a very contagious and deadly flu outbreak in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, with seven million deaths, and I mean chickens, poultry, but you know what I think. The most recent human influenza pandemic occurred in 1918, killing 20 million people worldwide and 500,000 in the United States. If the current population is used as a base, the death toll will reach about 1.5 million. Can you imagine how terrible it would have been if this had happened today? The influenza virus of 1918 was not very virulent, and travel was much less rapid and less frequent than it is now. Now. Contagious viruses on highways and airplanes can spread all over the world in a matter of days. One of the benefits of the deadliest viruses like the Ebola virus is that all the people died before they could be reached out of that small African village. ”;

"Is there a ferry at six o'clock?"; Sean asked.

Dr. Clinton laughed and said, "Are you a little nervous? You don't have to be scared here, we're careful." The little bugs in this building don't cause trouble. ”;

"It sounds like my dog doesn't bite. Theresa interjected.

Dr. Clinton ignored it and continued: "It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture of the United States to prevent foreign animal plagues from entering Hong Kong. Our institution is equivalent to the disease control center of Atzhu University, except that we study animal diseases. As you can imagine, we work closely with Atezhu because some diseases are cross-infected between animals and humans. We have a large quarantine facility in Newburgh, New York, where all foreign animals have to stay and quarantine. You know. It's like Noah's Ark for the daily flow of animals, which gathers foreign racehorses, circus animals, zoo animals, exotic commodity animals such as ostriches, alpacas, exotic pets such as Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, and a variety of jungle birds, with a total of 2.5 million animals per year. After reporting a series of numbers, Clinton looked triumphant and said: "Newburgh is like an entry checkpoint for animals, and Sunshine Island is a shelter for infected animals." None of the animals that came to us from Newburgh or elsewhere made it out alive, but I must know that we had done a lot of work and annoyed us with these exotic animals for recreation. It was only a matter of time before humans could be seen from the animal kingdom. ”;

Clinton was silent for a long time, and then continued: "The guns of Sunshine Island once defended the security of the American islands, and the role of Sunshine Island is still the same today. ”

Clinton is very talkative, and Sean and others are tasked with listening to him, so everyone cooperates very well.

Sean and the others walked into a room, and Clinton was in the X-ray crystallography room.

A woman is bending over to look at a microscope, and Clinton introduces her as a colleague and good friend of Dr. Liu, Tom and Waddy. Dr. Liu was about thirty years old, quite attractive, and his long black hair was netted with a hairnet, perhaps for the convenience of working with a microscope.

Dr. Lau greeted the crowd, and her expression was stern, perhaps because her friend's death had upset and grieved her.

Theresa knew again, because people don't like a bunch of cops asking questions without explanation, but if one of them is also a friend of the deceased, then he's gone. And the tall cop here could almost be a friend of the Bartys, of course, the kind they met. But what Dr. Liu didn't know, what she did know was that people felt that the death of the Barty couple was a tragedy, and they all had a good impression of the deceased.

The conversation turned to Dr. Liu's work. She explained in non-technical language so that Sean could understand, "I look at the virus crystals with X-rays and then map out their molecular structures. Then we try to change the virus so that it doesn't cause disease, but if we inject the changed virus into an animal, the animal has the potential to produce antibodies, and we hope that this antibody will work against the natural disease-causing virus. ”;

Theresa asked, "That's what the Bartys do?";

"Yes. Dr. Liu said.

"What exactly are they studying, which virus?"; Sean asked.

Dr. Liu glanced at Dr. Clinton. Sean didn't like it very much for the witness to do this, and it was annoying to decide after getting the signal Dr. Liu said, "Ebola. ”;

There were no words, and Dr. Clinton took over. "Of course it's the ape Ibola, infected with monkeys." I should have told you sooner, but I thought you might be willing to have a more detailed introduction from a colleague of the Bartys. "END. He nodded to Dr. Liu.

Dr. Liu continued, "The Barti couple wanted to genetically mutate the Ibolavirus so that it would not cause disease, but would create an immune response in the animal. There are many types of Ebola virus. We can't be sure which species can break through the species barrier ......".

"You're infected, aren't you?"; Sean asked.

"Yes, infecting humans. But figuring this out is the first step in the development of a human Ibola vaccine. Dr. Liu said.

"Traditionally, we have used livestock for most of our research work, and in recent years, some government agencies have been supporting other types of research," Dr. Clinton said. ”;

"For example, the military conducts biological weapons research?" Sean asked with a frown.

Dr. Clinton did not answer directly, but said: "This island has a unique environment, isolated from the rest of the world, but it is close to major transportation centers, and it is also close to the country's leading universities, and there is a group of learned scientists nearby." In addition, the facilities are technologically advanced. Therefore. In addition to the military, we also cooperate with other institutions at home and abroad when something as unusual as Ebola, or something that could pose a danger to humanity, comes along. ”;

"That is, you rented this place?" Sean asked with a frown.

"This institute is huge. Clinton replied.

"Do Mr. and Mrs. Batty work for the USDA?" Sean then asked.

"I can't. Clinton said, "It's confidential."

"Where do they get paid?" Sean asked.

"Everybody's paychecks are paid by the USDA. Clinton said.

"But not every scientist who gets paid a salary by the Ministry of Agriculture is an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture. Right?" Sean asked.

"I don't want to play with you words, Mr. Sean. Clinton looked at Dr. Liu and said, "Please continue." ”

"Since the work is divided into tasks and steps, no one except the project manager can know the whole work," says Dr. Liu. Tom is the supervisor, and Vidi is the deputy project director, in addition. They are excellent researchers in their own right. I remember their work, including asking project people to test practical steps that might have been misleading, and sometimes they would tell a project person that their tests weren't working. They closely supervise the clinical practices done on the monkeys, without the animal keepers being aware. Only Tom and Vidi know everything. ”;

Dr. Liu thought for a moment and continued, "I believe they didn't try to deceive people in the first place...... I think it was only when they realized that they were going to soon discover antibodies against ape ibola that they felt it was possible to transfer the technology to a private chamber and subsequently develop a human antibody. Maybe they think it's the best thing to do for the good of humanity, or maybe they believe that they can develop a vaccine faster and more effectively without Sunshine Island, which is like most government agencies, with cumbersome and procrastinating procedures. ”;

The tall policeman said, "Let's consider it from the perspective of profit motives, Dr. Liu, I don't think I can explain this matter for the sake of human interests." ”。

Dr. Liu shrugged, noncommittal

Theresa pointed to the microscope and asked, "Can I take a look?"

"Of course, these are dead ebola viruses. Live viruses are placed in Zone 5. But I can show you a video of the live Ebola virus without being in danger. ”; She turned to a television monitor, turned on the VCR, and the screen lit up, revealing four almost transparent crystals, faintly pink, trihedral, like a prism. If these viruses are really alive, then they are playing dead.

"I just drew out the molecular structure, and the genetic engineers used the diagram to cut and transfer the fragments of the gene, and then let the altered virus multiply and inject it into the monkeys," Dr. Liu said. The monkey may experience one of three reactions: it dies of Ebola infection; It was not infected with Ebola, but it also did not produce antibodies; It was not infected with Ebola and also produced antibodies to Ebola. The third response is exactly what we need, and that means we have found a vaccine. But this is not necessarily a safe and effective vaccine, and monkeys may also be infected with Ebola later on, and more commonly, when we inject monkeys with natural Ebola virus later, antibodies are not effective against the disease. This immune response is too weak, or the immune response is not resistant to all types of Ebolavirus. It's really annoying. The molecules and genetic structure of viruses are so simple, and they are much more difficult to deal with than bacteria, they are easy to mutate, it is difficult for people to understand them, and it is not easy to kill them. In fact, the question is, in terms of our understanding of life, are these crystals really alive? Look at them, they look like ice chips. ”; (Your support on this site is my biggest motivation.) ).

RT

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