Geneva, DG’s office, Friday, 21:10
This is a work of fiction.
Any resemblance to actual events or to real persons, dead or alive is, naturally, strictly coincidental.
38
Geneva, DG’s office
Friday, 21:10
“We’ve reached a temporary agreement,” said Dr Van Deymin. He had just returned from Jakarta and had come straight from the airport. He was now standing in the Director General’s office. Beside him stood Dr Wells. Dr Van Deymin, like the two other men in the room, looked exhausted. The line of his jaw stood out as he clenched his teeth and focused his attention on the Director General. He was an attractive man — not strikingly handsome — but his attractiveness lay in his determined features and his quiet, deep voice; the eyes of all those present in the room were immediately drawn to him.
“They agreed to resume sharing samples with the World Health Organization network, temporarily,” he continued. “I’ve met with the Health Minister, who understands that there is an urgent need to ensure global public health security. She insisted that this needs to be done in a way that is fair and wise. I agreed.”
“What exactly are we getting into? And what do you mean by ‘temporary agreement’? They can’t refuse to share strains of viruses. Nations can’t claim intellectual property rights over diseases that emerge within their borders. That’s ridiculous!” roared Dr Wells. The lack of sleep made him irritable.
“Developing countries should get fair and equitable access to vaccines,” said Dr Van Deymin, in his melodic voice. “I agree with the Indonesian claim that while they provide us with free samples, which we, in turn, provide for free to the pharmaceutical companies, they will have no resources to buy the developed products at full price. It is our obligation to ensure that the residents of developing countries get their fair innings, their fair chance to live.”
“This has nothing to do with fair innings,” said Dr Wells. “It sounds as though it’s not within our mandate to make such a promise.”
Dr Van Deymin glared at him. He was about to respond, but the Director General raised his hand.
“Gentlemen,” he said. “We are all frustrated, we are all tired, but we mustn’t forget that we all have the same objective,” he said. “Dahl, I thank you for your effort and for the positive outcome of your mission to Indonesia. The main thing is that now, once the sample sharing is resumed, we’ll be able to test the Indonesian strain and to see whether the virus has mutated into a form that makes human-to-human transmission more likely. Then we shall find a way to ensure that all those who need it, will have access to antiviral drugs and to vaccines.”
“The Indonesian Minister of Health would like to host an urgent meeting in Jakarta, together with the World Health Organization,” said Dr Van Deymin. “They want to discuss how the developing countries will get access to drugs and vaccines, in return for sharing the virus samples. I assured her that we welcome such a discussion, as long as they continue sharing the virus samples.”
“This sounds like a reasonable request,” said the Director General. “We shall honour it.”
“We don’t even know if and when the drugs and vaccines will be available,” said Dr Wells. “It could be weeks, it could be months. By the time the drugs are developed, half the world population may be ill, or worse, dead. It takes weeks and months, sometimes years of research, to develop a prototype. Then it needs to be tested, and produced, and distributed. This can take many more weeks and months. We are already looking at more than three hundred cases worldwide, within less than two weeks. To be honest, I am terrified to say it, but I don’t think we stand a chance in stopping the spread of this virus.”
The men looked at Dr Wells, then at each other. Dr Wells seemed embarrassed, but relieved, now that he was able to let out steam.
“Gentlemen, there is another reason I have asked you to step into my office, other than to hear Dahl’s report about his visit to Jakarta,” said Director General Chi.
Walter Wells and Dahl Van Deymin looked at the Director General with expectation.
“The information I am about to share with you is highly classified and isn’t yet official but, nevertheless, I am excited to share it with you. I just got a call from the Centre for Disease Control in the United States, the CDC. They say they have had a major breakthrough in the development of vaccines.”
The two men stared at him in disbelief.
“What do you mean by ‘breakthrough’?” asked Dr Van Deymin. “What kind of breakthrough could they have had, when we are still struggling with gathering samples and analysing them? We’ve passed very few samples to the pharmaceutical companies and they haven’t had much time to work with them. How can this be?”
“This is as much of a mystery to me as it is to you,” said the Director General. “But the CDC is sending someone to talk to us about it. Also, Dr Westfall and Lara Williams, a virologist, are on their way to the CDC on a chartered rescue plane headed for Washington, as we speak. They were invited to join an American evacuation flight from Riyadh, and will be asked to go to the CDC for a briefing as soon as they land. Apparently it is all highly confidential. Please don’t quote me on this but I was led to believe that the CIA is involved.”
“The CIA?” asked Dr Wells with surprise. “Next thing we’ll find out will be that the Arab leaders were right in blaming the West for spreading a virus in Muslim countries. How can the CIA be involved in finding a cure for a virus that has mysteriously originated in the Arab world? This doesn’t sound good, Dr Chi.”
The Director General shook his head and raised his hand.
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions. I agree this sounds impossible. But in a couple of hours the CDC person will arrive be in Geneva, and we’ll all be wiser. He is coming here directly from the airport. You are both invited to the briefing.”
“This is both good and bad news,” said Dr Van Deymin. “If indeed there is a breakthrough, it means that we need to start immediate mass-production. We haven’t yet resolved all the patent issues and the issues of helping countries who have no production capabilities. I gave my word, the word of the WHO, to the Indonesian Minister of Health. I said we would find a solution that would allow developing countries access to affordable medication. And all this is part of the good news. The bad news… the bad news, in my opinion, is that everyone will want to know how the WHO was involved in all this. Why didn’t we know about the American involvement? And if we did know, did we cooperate with the Americans? Think about the European Union, the Arab Countries, the Asian group, the donor countries. How will they react? I sure hope that the CIA person who’s arriving tonight will have a good explanation as to how the Americans had such a surprising breakthrough in finding a vaccine against a novel virus strain. Unless they had something to do with its mutation and spread.”
“The CDC person who’s arriving tonight, not CIA,” said the Director General.
Dr Wells and Dr Van Deymin looked at each other and, for the first time in over a week, smiled.
“Let’s be patient. We will know more tonight,” said the Director General. Dr Van Deymin shook his head in disbelief.
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