82. The president doesn’t know.
December 13, 2019.
Tiri-ri-ri-ring! Ri Ri Ri Ri!
My smartphone rings, and I realize it’s a call from Korea.
It was Mr. Min Myung-ki, Vice President of the Medical Division.
My heart sank when I saw his name on my smartphone screen.
This was the first time he had ever called me directly, so I knew in my gut that something was finally happening.
“Hello, Myung-ki Min?”
– Yes, Mr. Chairman. It’s Min Myung-ki. Can I speak to you?
“Yes, go ahead.”
– It’s not official news, but there’s some strange activity in China.
“Can you tell us more about it?”
– We’ve been monitoring China closely because of the SARS outbreak in 2003.
“Well?”
– A few hours ago, I heard from an acquaintance that an unexplained illness is spreading in China, so I asked him about the symptoms, and he said it was flu-like, with a bad case of pneumonia.
“Where in China?”
– It’s Wuhan, Hubei province, and I’m told that the health authorities in Wuhan have already reported it to the center a few days ago, but the Chinese authorities are still covering it up.
“Are you sure about the source?”
– I can’t reveal it, but it’s a Chinese epidemic prevention authority official with whom I had a relationship when I was in the civil service. He owed me a favor, so I asked him to let me know if there was an unexplained outbreak.
I’m pretty sure that’s it.
No, I knew this was it from the moment my phone rang.
“I’m going straight to Korea.”
– Okay, Mr. Chairman.
“Mr. Vice President.”
– Yes, go ahead.
“From now on, the healthcare division will go into emergency mode.”
– Yes, sir.
I hung up the phone and took a deep breath.
This is it.
The war against the virus had begun.
I took a moment to collect my thoughts and then motioned John in.
“You wanted to see me, boss?”
From nob le mt l. co m
John smiled and walked into my room.
Tesla was starting to climb, crossing $70, and Nvidia was marching toward $60.
And AMD had broken above $40 and was well on its way to $50.
So John had a big smile on his face.
“Yeah, John. Have a seat, I need to talk to you for a minute.”
“What’s going on, boss, you don’t look so good.”
I didn’t look in the mirror, but I’m pretty sure my expression right now is scary walking.
“Phew, I think I need to go to Korea right away.”
“Korea? Why all of a sudden?”
This is the first time since I’ve been with John that I’m going to Korea at the end of the year without closure.
“It seems something has come up that I was worried about.”
“…”
“I think I need to go to Korea and check on it myself. I’m sorry, I’m not going to see you at the end of the year.”
“Is it serious?”
“Probably—.”
“Hmmm, okay, don’t worry about the company. Everything is in order.”
“Thanks, John. It might take a little longer this time.”
“I’ll report back to you separately each day.”
“Okay, please. Bye, John!”
“Yes, boss.”
“About our employees’ annual vacation.”
“What? Vacation?”
“Yes. This time, make it a little longer. Give them as much notice as possible and tell them to go somewhere they’ve always wanted to go. And the company will pay for everything.”
“Can you see why you’d do that?”
“Because if I don’t go now, I won’t be able to go anywhere for a while.”
“…”
“John wants to take Amy and Jane with him, too, so you can go if you want.”
“Sure, boss.”
I said an early goodbye to my closest employees and headed home.
I grabbed my bags and headed straight to the airport to board the private plane.
I knew this trip to Korea was going to be long.
“Tell me about the current situation.”
Upon arrival in Korea, I left my luggage at home and went straight to the company to chair a meeting.
It was me, President Nam Jung-won, my brother Jae-ha, and Vice President Min Myung-ki.
“We’re focusing all of our intelligence efforts on China, but right now, all we know is that a mysterious pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan is continuing to spread, and it’s causing the Chinese authorities to be very nervous, and Mr. Nam has been helping us a lot.”
“Ms. Nam?”
“I’m using all my personal contacts. Well, mostly private contacts, but his intelligence is unparalleled anywhere in the world, especially in China, where he has offices in most provinces.”
“Please keep up the good work. I’ll ask Vice Chairman Lee Jung-ryong for his cooperation as well.”
“If you do, I’m sure we’ll be able to get some more information.”
At times like this, I really envy Sae-sung.
There is no place in the world where he doesn’t have employees.
I’m still just a capitalist.
“First, Mr. Jae-ha, or rather, Mr. Lee, tell me about the status of the epidemic prevention materials.”
“The mask factory in Zhengnan has been in full operation since last month. Currently, we haven’t received all the mask machines, but we will expedite them as soon as possible so that we can run 22 hours a day and night.”
“What about protective clothing?”
“I spoke to Vice President Min yesterday, and we’re releasing the stockpiled fabric to push production as much as possible. I think we’ll be fully operational by next year.”
“Please hurry as much as possible.”
“Understood.”
From nob le mt l. co m
Jae-ha took care of the masks and protective clothing.
“Vice President Min Myung-ki, please give us a report.”
“Yes, the medical division is currently focusing on securing diagnostic kits and vaccines, as well as treatment devices such as Ekmo and ventilators.”
“Is it possible to make diagnostic kits without samples?”
“It is possible to prepare them first. We usually use a method called erasure.”
“Erasure method?”
“Yes, we first create a kit that can test positive for all coronaviruses, and then we narrow it down by excluding positive cases of previously discovered coronavirus variants.”
“Huh?”
“Then we design a test kit and get it ready for mass production, and once we have the genetic information of the new virus, we can start mass producing it. This is called the pan-coronavirus testing method.”
“There is such a method?”
“Yes, there is, and we’re currently working with a biotech company called Sagen, which specializes in molecular diagnostics.”
“Did they cooperate with you?”
“That part was solved by Mr. Nam Won-jung.”
“President Nam?”
I turned to Mr. Nam, puzzled, and he replied with a faint smile.
“I used part of the $2 billion you sent me a while ago to secure control. It’s a pretty big company with a market capitalization of over 500 billion, so it cost me over 300 billion to get a 51% stake, and I did it because it’s a company with a bright future even if it wasn’t this one.”
“Good for you. Beyond that, just go out and buy the companies you need. We don’t have time to ask for cooperation, talk to them, blah blah blah.”
“I understand.”
“So you’re saying that the Jindin kits will go into mass production as soon as we have information about this outbreak?”
“Yes, theoretically, we can start mass production within a few days of getting the information. It’s a matter of getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which the CDC has agreed to help us with once the urgency of the situation is confirmed.”
“Hmm? How?”
“Well, there’s a system in place where the FDA can give us fast-track approval in case of an emergency. They are willing to help us with this.”
“Oh, Junho Kwon?”
“Dr. Kwon is helping, but the head of the KCDC, Dr. Jung In-young, is also actively helping.”
“That’s good.”
“Yes, I think it helps a lot to have a high-level official at the vice ministerial level, and not only that, but all the officials who experienced MERS in 2015 are very cooperative.”
Clearly, the 2015 trauma of the epidemic was a big deal for government officials.
I can’t believe how cooperative they are.
“MERS must have been pretty bad.”
“Yeah, we all feel the same way. We can only do so much as government employees, but we’re helping out where we can.”
“Okay, that’s great, thank you, but what about the vaccine?”
“We’re in the final stages of developing a vaccine for the SARS and MERS coronavirus samples we have. Within 10 days, we’ll be at the preclinical stage, which is what we were aiming for in the first place.”
“So that, too, can be modified accordingly once we have information on the new virus?”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
“So it all comes down to how quickly we can get the new virus from China?”
“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”
“Okay, let’s do everything we can to get it. It doesn’t matter how much it costs, let’s do our best!”
Although they spoke curiously and tried every possible way to get the sample, China was not an easy country.
No matter how hard they tried, time was passing and the virus was still hard to get.
Then, on December 24th, Santa came.
Bam!
“Mr. Chairman, we have a virus sample!”
Chairman Nam Jung-won shouted as he burst into my office without knocking.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, it’s currently on its way to iBiologics after leaving Incheong Airport.”
“hahahahaha! Does this mean there really is a Santa?”
“hahahahaha! Yes, there is.”
“By the way, how and where did you get it?”
“Don’t ask me that.”
“What?”
“You don’t know, and I don’t know.”
“Ah…”
Mr. Nam’s words suggest that this is not a normal route.
If so, he’s telling me to ignore the illegal element.
“It cost over 7 billion won to secure this. Besides, it can’t be cleared through customs normally, so it’s being smuggled in. Even if a vaccine is developed later, it will still be officially recognized as having been obtained outside of China.”
“I see what you mean.”
“I’ll just spread the cost of the 7 billion that went in and account for it.”
By the time the pandemic hits, we’ll have forgotten about this.
There’s going to be a war to get a vaccine, and who cares how we did it?
December 31st.
The world is slowly starting to get wary of this guy.
In South Korea, a news organization was the first to publish a story.
[1] An unexplained pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, has health officials on edge.
“A total of 27 cases of viral pneumonia have been reported in Wuhan this month, seven of them in critical condition,” China Central (CC) TV said on Nov. 31. According to CCTV, two have been discharged from the hospital with improved symptoms.
Most of the pneumonia patients are reportedly self-employed workers at the Huainan Seafood Market in Wuhan’s Jianghan District. …..]
The World Health Organization WHO has also issued a warning about pneumonia in Wuhan, China.
Although it seems to me that it is already too late.