66. They’ll come back for sure!
As we entered the room at the Japanese restaurant, a middle-aged man with a half-shaved head sat down first, then stood up when he saw us.
“Are you Dr. Kwon Jun-ho from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?”
“Yes, I’m Kwon Jun-ho. Are you Nam Jung-won, President of Karma Holdings?”
“Yes, I’m Nam Won-jung, and I contacted you through a mutual acquaintance in a hurry, but thank you for coming out like this.”
“No, the person who built the bridge in the middle was someone I couldn’t refuse, but I heard it wasn’t a request. Besides, I’ve heard that you’re affiliated with the famous Chung-Hwa Welfare Foundation.”
“Ah! You must be familiar with the Purification Foundation, right?”
“hahahaha! The CDC is also under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Well, there’s little connection, but who in Korea doesn’t know about the Jeonghwa Foundation these days?”
After all, people should be good and do good.
He seems to be very cautious because he is a government employee, but when he hears that it is an affiliate (?) of the Jeonghwa Welfare Foundation, he seems to be willing to come out.
“This makes me feel embarrassed as a person in charge of a for-profit business, and I feel that I should work hard and pay diligently. hahahahaha!”
“hahahahaha, that’s all very well, but who is this young man?”
“Ah, let me introduce him, he’s the one who asked for a seat today. This is Mr. Cheol-Sik Kang, the owner of our company, Karma Holdings.”
“What? Chairman?”
“And the one who controls all the resources of the Purification Social Welfare Corporation.”
“Aha! Excellent!”
Kwon Jun-ho, who had been surprised to hear that I was the owner of Karma Holdings, immediately blanched when I told him that I was the one who put all the money into the Purification Welfare Foundation, and continued to praise me in a favorable tone.
Embarrassed.
“I’m embarrassed. I run an investment firm in the United States called Karma Investments. It’s steel.”
“Oh, and Karma Holdings?”
“Yeah, it’s a holding company I just created to invest and do business in Korea as well.”
“Oh, I see, I’ve never heard of it before.”
“Well, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come out.”
“No, I’m not, but what do you want me for? You said you were looking for an expert or someone in charge of epidemic prevention, so I came out, but—.”
“First, let’s have a meal—.”
“Please, something inexpensive.”
“What?”
What are you talking about?
“hahahahaha, I’m a government employee. I have to pay for my own meals, and from the looks of it, this place looks ridiculously expensive.”
“…”
“…”
For a moment, both I and Mr. Nam were flustered.
We were looking for a quiet place to meet and talk, so we chose this place, but we didn’t expect him to be so principled.
“Look, we’re not asking for any favors, but—.”
“No, you’re not. The Act on the Prohibition of Unauthorized Solicitation and Graft prohibits meals costing more than 30,000 won, regardless of whether there is a request or quid pro quo.”
“Yes—.”
“…”
I can’t even get to the point of this, what the hell is going on?
“Mr. Nam. Is this the cheapest meal here?”
“Uhm, Mr. Chairman. To put it mildly, it’s over 30,000 won just for water.”
“…”
In the end, I asked the owner for his understanding and told him that I was going to leave after talking to him for a while, and that I would come back next time.
This was possible because he had been selling for quite a while.
I also talked to Kwon Jun-ho and asked him to go out and eat for less than 30,000 won, and he said yes, so it was resolved for now.
“Okay, you’re running an investment company, what do you want to know about epidemics and epidemic prevention all of a sudden? I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“By any chance, are you familiar with MERS?”
“Me, MERS?”
Kwon’s face hardened in a frightening way, as if he’d just cut to the chase.
“Yes, MERS. It was an epidemic in Korea in 2015—.”
“I know, I know, I know very well. Even now, it’s painful to think about it.”
“…”
Mr. Kwon sounded as if he was in pain.
“It must be a very bad memory.”
“As an official in charge of the country’s epidemic prevention, it was a very painful incident, and even the current head of the department had to be severely disciplined for it, and many experts left the public service after taking responsibility for the epidemic’s failure.”
“Ah, I see.”
“So, Mers, why are you asking me this out of the blue?”
“I’m just going to ask you straight up: do you think we’ll ever have another outbreak like MERS?”
“You’re asking off the record?”
“What you’ve said here today is not going to get out, no matter what, which is why I booked this expensive house.”
“Then let me state my opinion off the record, too: they will come back, they will come back, they will come back!”
“Huh—.”
“…”
Kwon Jun-ho’s words were so adamant that Nam Jung-won and I both forgot what to say for a moment.
“This is my opinion, but it’s not my only opinion either. If you ask any of the infectious disease and epidemic prevention experts, they’ll probably say the same thing.”
“Well, I see.”
“And it’s going to hit humanity so hard that it’s going to be unlike any invasion we’ve seen so far. We’ve gotten too complacent.”
“What do you mean, so far?”
President Namjungwon, who didn’t know English, questioned.
“SARS in 2002! MERS in 2015! They’re all types of coronaviruses, and do you know what that means? Their attacks on humanity are getting a little more insidious and relentless. Next time? I don’t know when, but they’re sure to come back with more power.”
“So, is our country prepared for a massive pandemic?”
“Phew, the good news is that my country has been hit harder by MERS than any other country outside the Middle East, so we’ve been working hard to put together a weak but effective plan.”
“What kind of measures?”
“We’ve created a manual of procedures for dealing with unexplained outbreaks, and we’re training based on sophisticated disaster response algorithms. Of course, even this is bound to fail if someone stronger comes along, but at least we won’t be caught off guard.”
“…”
“…”
These people, they’ve been silently preparing for war in a place where no one recognizes them.
They are not warriors with guns and swords.
They are warriors on the front lines of humanity.
I used to curse the government officials, but then I felt ashamed.
“It’s a lot of hard work. I’m ashamed to say that I sometimes curse officials behind their backs.”
“You’re welcome—.”
“So, administrative systems aside, are the hardware measures sufficient in the event of such a large-scale outbreak?”
“Unfortunately, no. There are not enough epidemic prevention supplies, and there are not enough treatment facilities in case of a large-scale outbreak.”
“What do you mean by supplies?”
“KF94-rated masks, level C.D. protective clothing, goggles, thermometers, and so much more.”
“I see.”
“And then, the coronavirus is acute, causing a wide range of respiratory and digestive system infections in humans and animals. Acute upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, and so on. So, hospitals need negative pressure wards and ventilators and eclipses, and there’s a huge shortage of eclipses, especially if your lungs are attacked and destroyed, you need eclipses, not ventilators.”
“What? Ecmo?”
“I get the ventilator, but what the hell is an ecmo?
“Oh, you’re not quite sure. ECMO, or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, is a device that removes carbon dioxide from the blood and delivers oxygen directly to the heart and lungs when they are not able to breathe spontaneously. In short, it takes the place of a person’s heart and lungs.”
“Ohhh! Something like that, but why isn’t it available?”
“Well, for one thing, it’s expensive. It’s like 100 million a piece. And when I say there’s a shortage, I mean there’s not really a shortage right now, but there will be a shortage if there’s a pandemic.”
“So there’s no domestic production?”
“No. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and some of the leading hospitals have teamed up to make them domestically just a short time ago.”
“Oh, that’s great!”
Oh, so government employees do things.
I thought they didn’t.
“We currently have about 300 units in about 100 hospitals, but in our judgment, it won’t be enough if there’s a rush of extreme cases in an emergency.”
“So another 100 or so would help?”
“Absolutely!”
“I see, but if we’re going to fight and win against that nose masher virus, we’re going to have to have a vaccine and a cure, right?”
“That’s true, but unfortunately, our pharmaceutical industry is still a bit underpowered. Eventually, it will probably come from a multinational company.”
“Are they hard to make?”
“Vaccines are actually not hard to make, I’m not saying it’s easy, of course. The problem is that they have to go through phase 3 clinical trials, which is a bit difficult in Korea.”
“Hah, I see.”
As I listened to Dr. Kwon’s words, I slowly began to organize my thoughts on what I needed to do.
“Thank you very much for your kind words today, Mr. Kwon.”
“That’s all well and good, but why is an investment banker interested in this kind of thing?”
“Well, as I said at the beginning, I run an investment firm in the United States. When I make an investment, I do a lot of in-depth research, and during my search for a multinational pharmaceutical company, I met a very prominent expert.”
“Do you happen to know his name?”
“Oh, that’s a secret.”
“Well, I see.”
How am I supposed to know the name of someone I don’t know?
He doesn’t even exist.
“He said that sooner or later, our species will be facing a pandemic of untold proportions.”
“Ah! I see!”
“That’s why I went back to Korea in a hurry. Even though I’m living in the U.S., I’m Korean. My siblings and parents are Korean. Anyway, that’s why I was wondering if my country would be able to respond properly in an emergency.”
“I see.”
That’s the best excuse I can come up with.
I don’t know what else to say about this.
What’s a dream like that supposed to do?
“I’d like to arrange a few things personally, first of all, I’d like to get you some Ekmo gear.”
“Oh, that’s great!”
“Would you mind if I contacted you from time to time and asked you about that?”
“That would be great, hahahahaha!”
“Thank you.”
After talking, we headed out and went to a nice crucible house.
We ate there and drank a bottle of banju each, and the bill came to 88,000 won.
We barely made it under 30,000 won per person.
“What I ate is because I—.”
“Ha, leave it alone. It was definitely not more than 30,000 won.”
“hahahahaha, then you ate well.”
“You’re welcome—.”
Huh!
Now it’s really hard to eat with government employees.