Chapter 466: The Biggest Challenges in Developing the Smallpox Vaccine

The hospital is ready, the staff is in place, and Garrett Nordmark rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

In the front yard, which is the outpatient department, it remains desolate, with hardly a visitor. Only about ten patients come daily, leaving the five attending healers so idle that they jokingly wish everyone had a cat:

It’s not about petting cats to relieve irritability, but rather about throwing a ball of yarn to the cat to keep it entertained and thus find something to do for themselves...

In the backyard, the research department, work progresses smoothly and orderly. The issue that had troubled Leon Carlos for half a year was practically a non-issue for Garrett:

"Try freezing, drying, and freeze-drying. Use these three methods alternately, with freezing temperatures ranging from -20 degrees to -10 degrees, and 2 degrees to 10 degrees, each degree being a point."

He reported a long list without changing his expression or thinking twice. Hmm, how should vaccines be stored? Don’t know, didn’t study it, it’s not in the textbooks. This isn’t within the scope of applied medicine; making vaccines is a job for neighboring bioengineering...

Luckily, before crossing over, Garrett had heard a bit about several storage temperatures. He relied on this fragmentary knowledge to talk confidently, and it was quite bluffing.

Well, as long as he’s the boss, just giving directions is enough. The actual experiments, naturally, others will run around to do!

Leon Carlos scribbled down notes, barely keeping up with his speed. As for how to achieve Garrett’s requirements, adjusting the magical array could certainly do it, although it might burn through the budget...

"For drying, don’t use heating methods, you can use natural drying, desiccants, or magic to draw out moisture," Garrett continued:

"I remember... there’s a magic called ’Thirsty Touch’?"

"Correct, it’s a first-tier necromancy spell," Carlos perked up. This spell, through touch, can cause living beings to rapidly lose a significant amount of moisture, leading to dehydration. Although it has many limitations and its cost-effectiveness isn’t high, it seems perfect for dehydrating vaccines?

"But I don’t know that spell..."

He felt a bit ashamed. Although he was a necromancer and had advanced to a formal mage, he was just a student at the academy—in other words, he had no direct mentor, no affection from grandmother or uncle.

The most common necromancy spells, like striking the undead (yes, the introductory trick of necromancy is striking the undead, a perfect example of "I kill myself"), touch of fatigue, touch of cold, ray of enfeeblement, are still learnable in the academy. ’Thirsty Touch,’ a niche spell...

"Oh, I’ll send you the information later."

Garrett nonchalantly responded. Thunder Horn had rich storage, previously Archmage Carlisle had thrown countless spell models at him, among them was ’Thirsty Touch’.

Just a first-tier spell, teaching it to the mages in his own mage tower, the school probably wouldn’t mind...

As for freeze-drying, they had done it once before when making penicillin, they just had to copy the same method now.

Carlos took his orders and went. Garrett sat alone at his desk, propping his cheek in thought:

How to verify the efficacy of the vaccine produced?

If it were a cholera or plague vaccine, that would be simple; a large number of animals could be used for experiments. But not for the smallpox vaccine, smallpox is notoriously human-specific. Rats, rabbits, dogs, pigs, nothing else could be used...

Garrett began to furiously scratch his head. After a while, an oak wand leapt out of his pocket with the "Endless Ink Pen" and began writing:

Technical route 1: Use cattle as the verification subjects. 20 freezing temperatures, 10 vaccine samples per group, with preservation times of 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 15 days, 30 days. A total of... 1000 cows?!

Do the surroundings of Nevis have so many cows? Getting so many cows, how much budget would that require?

Technical route 2: Use primates as verification subjects. Same grouping method, need... 1000 monkeys?

The oak wand shook slightly. Pressing down with the "Endless Ink Pen," it drew a deep, long line across this technical route.

Technical route 3: Use humans as verification subjects...

That’s what Dr. Jenner did back in the day, directly vaccinating people with cowpox vaccine, then several months later, vaccinating with humanpox vaccine. If the humanpox vaccination was successful, it meant the cowpox did not produce protection; if the humanpox vaccination failed, it meant the

cowpox vaccine was successful.

The advantage of this route is that Nevis City lacks nothing but people, finding 1000 people as experimental subjects is definitely no issue; the downside is...

Garrett sadly discovered that he still has a bit of social anxiety. It’s easy for him to sit in the hospital and see 1000 patients, but to go out on the street and convince 1000 normal people to participate in a cowpox vaccination experiment...

Just imagining it makes him think, forget it, might as well kill him.

As a doctor, a doctor in a public first-tier hospital, an emergency department doctor at a first-tier hospital, he’s always worried about having too many patients, never about having too few. How to attract patients, he has no experience!

Ah, how did Dr. Jenner find so many test subjects back then?

Garrett desperately recalled, sadly discovering that Dr. Jenner seemed to have only done a dozen or so people. So why do I need 1000 people? Is there a problem with my experimental design, or are my demands too high?

Ah, was too hasty before, already vaccinated all the apprentices and nurses, now there are no experimental subjects left...

Garrett hugged his head, groaned, and his forehead smashed onto the desk. Clang! The noise startled Miss Anita Winvey, who was entering:

"Sir, what’s wrong?"

"Who am I to vaccinate with cowpox..." Garrett’s forehead rested on the edge of the table, muttering and moaning. Anita Winvey approached with a tray, glanced at the documents on the desk, and chuckled:

"A thousand people? Sir, getting a thousand people is very easy. Our treatment center at the port, doesn’t it gather a thousand patients every month?"

Garrett suddenly sat up.

That’s right!

Make the treatment center famous!

Let the surrounding people feel this is a reliable place!

Garrett snatched the pen from the root of the oak wand and began writing furiously. Once the ideas started flowing, ways to find people became plentiful:

1. Make the treatment center famous to attract more patients. This is the proper way, run it well, and the potential is unlimited;

2. Go around offering medical services to the countryside while vaccinating people on the side. It must be said, wearing a linen robe, holding an oak wand, riding on Appa, the presence is definitely impressive, making it easy to convince people. Find 20 experimental subjects in one village, visit 50 villages, and the task is completed;

3. Talk to the city hall, ask for some prisoners for experiments. The city hall might not agree, might need to communicate with the public health department first, or play the teacher’s card;

4. Ask the surrounding lords for help, they provide the subjects, we provide the vaccines...

Although verifying the cowpox vaccine requires a thousand people, these people don’t need to come all at once: considering that later stages of humanpox vaccination require isolation observation, actually, each batch only needs 20~40 people. Any more, and the hospital’s reception capacity would also not be able to cope.

Calculating this, the pressure is actually not that great.

"Anita Winvey! Let’s go see patients at the front!"

However, Garrett’s joining at first did not make the situation better. For the impoverished who came to the door, the experienced healers, mild cases received some medicine, severe cases got a healing spell, usually all resolved within ten minutes. Only Garrett, ten minutes wasn’t enough for his examination:

"What’s your name, sir?"

"Age?"

"What’s bothering you?"

"Stand up, let me see... ah, take off your coat, all those metal ornaments, take them off!"

"Alright, lie down, lift up your shirt, let me see further..."

Visual inspection, questioning, listening, palpation. X-rays, ultrasounds, ECGs. The time spent gathering patient information was three times longer than the time for treatment. Even so, the final answers were mostly:

"Sir, take this medicine..."

"Sir, I’ll give you a healing spell..."

Just, a huge waste of time.

And also stealing patients!

The priests working with him looked askance. Mr. Garrett Nordmark, although you are our employer, could you not steal our jobs?

We need to accumulate healing experience to advance!

Because there’s too little treatment volume here, we’ve already divided the work, each person only comes for half a day!

The war god’s temple’s third-level priest Mark Saren rolled up his sleeves, hoisted the treatment table onto his shoulder, and silently moved it to the front door.

The nature god’s sect’s second-level priest Hannah immediately followed. She didn’t even need to call for help, she urged the plants to curl up two table legs, lifted one side of the table herself, and moved the treatment table to the other side of the door.

Garrett: "......"

Is

it necessary? Is it necessary to treat me this way? I’m just taking a bit more time for examinations! I’m not making you stay overtime!

Hmph! If you can, just keep stealing! If you can, don’t encounter an intractable disease!

Garrett grumbled in his heart. However, a difficult case soon arrived—Mark came over with a troubled face to call him:

"Master Nordmark, can you come and see? I’ve treated this patient more than once, keeps relapsing!"

Garrett stood up and went outside. The visitor smiled broadly upon seeing him, his chubby, plump face overflowing to the sides, his eyes squinting to mere slits:

"Master Nordmark! — Do you remember me?"

...Honestly, the face is a bit familiar, can’t remember the name. Garrett scanned from top to bottom, from bottom to top, paused at his noticeably enlarged finger joints, and suddenly realized:

"Oh... you’re that... I treated your gout! How’s it been lately? Still pain in your fingers and toes? Still eating seafood and drinking?"

"No, no, dare not eat anymore," the merchant nodded and bowed, all smiles. He assisted an elderly man with white hair into Garrett’s clinic, sat down opposite him at the desk:

"My father’s coughing up blood again... sought more than one priest, always cured temporarily, then relapses after a couple of months... Master Nordmark, please have a look?"

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