In addition to the Salvation Hospital, there are other ways to get this life-saving drug, for example, in the underground black market, but at a higher price, about 40 francs or more. According to the instructions of the antiviral oral solution, this thing must be taken four times a day, one for children and two for adults, and in critical cases, the dosage is doubled. In other words, once an adult becomes a suspected case and develops symptoms of fever, he will need to spend 480 francs a day on drugs on the black market, and if he is critically ill, he may even spend 960 francs, which is nothing short of robbery. And the Spanish flu has a very distinctive feature, that is, most of the deaths from serious illnesses are young people.

However, the problem is that the quantity of low-cost antiviral oral liquid at Salvation Hospital is very limited, and there are many restrictions, for example, a patient can only buy one box at a time, that is, 12 bottles. And I always start seeing a doctor at half past eight, and before half past nine, I use up all my medicines.

"No way, the amount of medicine is insufficient. You must know that because the cost of this drug has not been able to come down, it has not been sold well in the past few years. Therefore, the output is naturally very low, and the stock is naturally very low. The addition of drugs does not mean that it is possible to increase production. So the number is naturally insufficient. Also, because of the fear that the flu would affect the United States, the U.S. government banned McDonald Medicines from exporting too much of the drug, and the U.S. government stipulated that for every antiviral liquid McDonald Pharmaceuticals sold to Europe, it had to sell fifteen of them in the United States. Although, as you know, after the protests of the British and French governments, the ratio was reduced to 10 to 1. Moreover, the vast majority of drugs exported to Europe have to meet the orders of the military first, so in fact, it is already very difficult for our hospitals to get so many drugs. I hope you will understand and be considerate. After running out of medicine for the day, Dr. Jacques, the director of the Salvation Hospital in Paris, held up a bullhorn and explained aloud to the shouting crowd who were dissatisfied that they had not bought the medicine. Behind him, several heavily armed guards were watching the crowd warily. Then the window closed in front of these people, and these people did not leave, but continued to line up there, as long as there was always hope in line.

……

"Electrica, I'm going to keep standing in line here, you've got to get to the black market and buy some medicine. Otherwise, Aiden won't be able to wait......" said an old man in line to his wife, who continued to stay here.

"Okay, old man, you go quickly, I'll be here to watch." The old woman replied.

"There are no drugs in American hospitals, so how can there be in the black market?" A person standing in line asked suspiciously, "Could it be that the people in the hospital are secretly selling drugs to the black market?" ”

"I think it's better to suspect our politicians than the Americans, who have a lot of drugs in their hands, and I don't believe these guys are going to use all of them in the military, and they must have intercepted a lot of money on the black market." Another aunt said that several years of war, huge casualties, and now an uncontrollable plague have made people in Paris generally dissatisfied with the government.

"And the U.S. government, which says it's our friend? It is simply ...... to control the export of medicines to us at this time."

"Actually, I think I can understand what the U.S. government is doing, after all, they are first and foremost responsible for the safety of Americans. It's said that the U.S. has already had this flu -- but our government is so incompetent that it accepts the 10-to-1 ratio of the Americans. ”

"What ten to one, it's only one between us and England, and all the European countries, including Italy! I've heard that some of the drugs in the black market are actually smuggled from the United States. I heard that in the United States, the price of these drugs is much cheaper, cheaper than the price in the Salvation Hospital. So some people secretly smuggle drugs from the United States to Europe, after all, there are more than ten times the profit in it. Another man said mysteriously.

"So our government is stupid! Why don't they hurry to the United States to register some enterprises, and then purchase them directly in the United States and smuggle them back? Someone else cursed like that.

These people have really wronged the French government, first of all, in the French black market, the vast majority of antiviral oral liquid comes from the United States. Second, shortly after the outbreak of the flu in Europe, a whole bunch of new pharmacies popped up in the United States, and many of these new pharmacies had European backgrounds behind them. However, it is difficult for these pharmacies to get this drug from MacDonald Medicine, and the reason is that the production is limited, and it is sold out. In other words, these pharmacies simply do not have a channel to buy goods. Rumor has it that some companies close to McDonald have been placing large orders for a long time, and then they have gotten their hands on this lucrative business. Then these pharmacies of European capital tried to buy them directly from other pharmacies, only to find that in the regular pharmacies of the United States, these drugs were in short supply, and as soon as they were put on the counter, they would be immediately sold out. As for the fact that it is not uncommon to buy directly from the Yankee's pharmacy at a higher price in private, the quantity is very limited, and there have been several times when the American police have caught it. Then both the goods and the payment for the goods were confiscated.

However, they did not completely wronged the French government and military, because some people in the French government and military did participate in the black market drug trade, and did sell these valuable drugs on the black market for huge profits, but most of them did not sell antiviral oral liquid in their own markets. In their opinion, because there are American smugglers competing with them on the French black market, the profit is really very limited, and an antiviral oral liquid is only sold for about 40 francs, which is too cheap, if it is sold to ...... Shhhh So, damn it, those traitors to the French homeland, they actually smuggled a lot of antiviral oral liquid on hand to the Germans! In order to increase their purchases, they not only did not sell these drugs on the French black market, but even continued to buy them from the French black market and then sold them to the Germans. And their practices have also caused the price of antiviral oral liquid to rise in the French black market.

Of course, buying to the Germans medicines that should have been supplied to the French soldiers, if such a thing were exposed, would certainly lead to a revolution. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the sick soldiers can drink this miraculous potion, at least, there must be no mismatch on the ledger. As a result, counterfeit antiviral oral liquids came into being.

It is almost impossible to reverse engineer the formulation and process of antiviral oral liquid, even in later generations, especially in this era. However, it is not particularly difficult to make a sugar water that is relatively similar in color and taste, especially when France has a large number of the world's best chefs. As a result, counterfeit and shoddy potions were replaced by real potions and were constantly supplied to the soldiers of the army, while the real antiviral oral solution that was supposed to be given to them was constantly sold to the Germans.

……

As someone mentioned, the Spanish flu also spread rapidly to the United States, in just a few days, the number of people infected with this cold reached millions, in order to quickly control the plague, the White House asked Congress to pass the "Special Immunization Management Regulations", stipulating that during the flu epidemic, any entertainment that will cause crowds to be concentrated, all movie theaters, cabaret theaters are stopped, all sports competitions are also stopped, of course, Naturally, any demonstrations and any messy things are not allowed. In fact, under the pressure of such a plague, few people are really not afraid of death and dare to run into the crowd.

In order to avoid being infected with this terrible flu when you go out, even in broad daylight, the street becomes empty, and in the future life, you can simply use it to act in zombie movies. There are only two places that are overcrowded, one is a hospital and the other is a pharmacy.

Originally, according to logic, the United States is the main producer of cotton, so there will never be a shortage of cotton yarn, and naturally there will never be a shortage of cotton yarn masks. At the very least, it is not a problem to ensure that everyone has enough masks. If there are really people who insist on raising prices, the American people can go home on their own. Even in later generations, the American people's ability to do it themselves is still good.

However, a plausible statement first popped up in some in-radio talk programs:

"Doctor Philips, is it possible to keep germs out by wearing a mask?" The moderator asked.

"Ah, this question cannot be generalized. Generally speaking, it's better to wear it than not to wear it at all. You know, though, that influenza is caused by a virus, not the germs you just mentioned, which are very small, much smaller than bacteria. Therefore, they have a higher chance of penetrating the mask and entering the human respiratory tract and causing lesions. In addition, because the face is not a standardized geometry, there is still a gap between the mask and the face after wearing it, and the virus can completely enter the respiratory tract through such a gap. So masks don't exactly guarantee our safety......"

"So Dr. Philips, what do you think will keep us safe?" The moderator asked again.

"If I had to say, the thing that works the most, the best thing to keep the virus out of the respiratory tract, is definitely a gas mask, so if possible, wearing a gas mask is safer and better." Dr. Philips replied in a serious manner.

As a result, a new, huge market for civilian goods appeared.